› added 4 years ago

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TIL that children's author Roald Dahl singlehandedly took on six German bombers in WWII, developed a medical shunt that saved 3,000 childrens' lives, and was partially the inspiration for James Bond

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1aJKP TIL about George Ray Tweed, one of six men to refuse to surrender to the Japanese on Guam in 1941. 5 were captured & beheaded. He avoided capture for two years and seven months when the USA recaptured the island.
6EyVQ TIL Bud Sailors, 6'5", would tease his younger brother, Kenny Sailors, 5'7", playing basketball, "Kenny, this isn't the game for you. It's for big men. Tall men." So Kenny invented what is known today as the Jump Shot.
XENar TIL of Project Azorian, a secret CIA project in the 1970s fronted by eccentric businessman Howard Hughes. The CIA spent the equivalent of $4 billion to make a ship that could recover a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine. It nearly succeeded, but 2/3rds of the vessel broke away during retrieval.
6EJml TIL Celebrity worship syndrome (CWS) is an obsessive addictive disorder in which a person becomes overly involved with the details of a celebrity's personal and professional life
XEEl6 Spies used it as a secret weapon. A president tumbled from it. Hitler wanted it destroyed. Just what made this train so intriguing?