› added 8 years ago

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TIL before becoming President of Nauru, Marcus Stephen was at one time his country’s only weightlifter, but went on to win 7 gold and 5 silver medals at the Commonwealth Games (Olympics style event held for former British colonies)

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4koEg TIL that in 1986, a French woman invested several months of her time to gain the necessary qualifications to operate a helicopter. She then proceeded to rent one, fly it over a prison, and successfully extract her husband, a convicted bank robber, from the prison's roof.
xVPmb TIL Socrates claimed all his wisdom came from a voice in his head that told him what not to do but never what to do. The reason he was arrested wasn't just that he did not believe in Athen's gods, but that he presented this voice in his head as a new god.
9Kvr TIL that 30 british officers tried to escape POW camp “Castle Colditz” (Oflag IV-C) by digging a tunnel. Because they read the compass wrong, they landed in the wine cellar of a german colonel. There they drank 137 bottles of wine, filled them with their urine and placed them back.
Yr0B TIL James Earl Jones used to use Darth Vader as a CB radio handle while traveling cross country and spoke in character. “The truck drivers would really freak out — for them, it was Darth Vader. I had to stop doing that.”
eZRg TIL that the only actual case of poisoned Halloween candy occurred in 1974 when a father killed his son with a cyanide-laced Pixy Stick so he could collect life insurance.