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TIL In the first half of the 20th century, state sponsored campaigns dynamited roosting areas, taking large numbers of American Crows. A campaign in Oklahoma from 1934 to 1945 dynamited 3.8 million birds.

yQKDe TIL as a reaction to slipping behind in the space race, the United States Air Force developed a plan to detonate a nuclear bomb on the moon. The main objective was to cause a nuclear explosion that would be visible from Earth, boosting the morale of the Amercian people.
dV4K TIL that Orsen Welles and Ernest Hemingway became great friends after getting into a fist-fight with each other in a theater:
7rpWL TIL of Stoffel—a Honey Badger in a South African wildlife center who’s escaped his enclosure twice to fight the lions in the exhibit beside his, built towers out of rocks and sticks to climb over his wall, and, when introduced with a mate, stood on her head to unlock the gate and get out once again.
9YPwm TIL In the 18th century many prominent voices were concerned by an 'epidemic' affecting young people whereby they were spending too much time reading books. It was diagnosed as 'a dangerous disease' called 'reading rage, reading fever, reading mania or reading lust.'
OGeba TIL St. Patrick's day originally was celebrated with blue. George III needed to create a new order of chivalry for the kingdom of Ireland and needed a color for it. The Order of the Garter for the previous Kingdom of England already used a dark blue, so a lighter blue was used. It changed in ~1800.