› added 9 months ago

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TIL a Canadian pigeon, Beach Comber, arrived in Britain from Dieppe, France carrying a message from the Army alerting commanders of their landing there, marking the start of the Dieppe Raid. It's the only Canadian war pigeon ever to be awarded a Dickin Medal, one of only three animals so honored.

KOPyR TIL after US President Richard Nixon was forced from office because of Watergate, the Soviet Union leaders were astonished. They couldn't comprehend that the most powerful person in the world had been removed by legal means.
j61Gn TIL about "Slack Fill" lawsuits, suits aimed at food companies for packing their food only a fraction of the each container's capacity. Most of these are class-action suits and the majority of the U.S. suits are filed from Northern California. In fact lawyers call San Francisco the "Food Court".
pMnA TIL Joe Pyne once started his interview with Frank Zappa by saying “So I guess your long hair makes you a woman.” to which Zappa responded “So I guess your wooden leg makes you a table!”
Wkamd TIL the median Xfinity internet subscriber uses 308 GB of data per month (and they have ~30 million subscribers). Depending on the distribution of usage, that could mean 10 Exabytes of data per month!
4xNN TIL under secrecy, that the first jet powered aircraft flown in the US was piloted by Jack Woolams. Already confused by seeing a plane flying with no propeller, other pilots who spotted Woolams would then see him in the cockpit wearing a gorilla mask, a bowler hat, and smoking a cigar.