› added 2 months ago

6

TIL after North Korean soldiers killed two US officers who were trimming a poplar tree in the DMZ, the US launched "Operation Paul Bunyan." They sent a convoy of 813 soldiers, 27 helicopters, nuclear-capable bombers, and an aircraft carrier just to cut down that one tree.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

G4y5 TIL that in 1978, Charlie Chaplin’s body was stolen and held for ransom. His widow refused to pay ransom demands of £400,000 because “Charlie would have thought it ridiculous.” The body was found 11 weeks later.
pYAd8 TIL that the James Webb Telescope orbits a Lagrange point, a spot in space where the gravity from earth and sun (or another set of bodies) cancel one another out and satellites can orbit the spot rather than earth, giving a unique perspective.
5Y4dR TIL US cotton exports were so cheap and competitive that they bankrupted the Egyptian economy back in the 1800s
aw6QZ TIL Jeremy Soule was inspired to write music for TES: Oblivion which reflects the human condition and the beauty of life, after being involved in a car crash which he was lucky to survive.
wLrmW TIL that although it's called the "San Francisco Bay Area", the city of San Francisco isn't even the biggest city in that area. San Jose, its neighbor to the South, is more populous and nearly 4 TIMES larger in area.