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TIL that during the Great Leap Forward, when Chinese sparrows were deemed a pest and tried to be exterminated, some of the sparrows found refuge at the Polish Embassy in Beijing. The Embassy refused to scare away the birds and was surrounded by people playing on drums causing the sparrows to die.

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gM1lW TIL: People like Forrest Gump were real. In the Vietnam War, a program under LBJ, and McNamara swept through the ghettos of America looking for low IQ people to induct into the Armed Forces; in total 354000 people. Termed "McNamara's Morons" they were KIA at 3x the rate of other soldiers
l7x6A TIL that Famous Amos cookies are named for Wally Amos, a talent agent who first signed Simon and Garfunkle. His first cookie shop was started with a loan from Marvin Gaye.
LQVRP TIL helicopter stunt pilot Cliff Flemming was contracted by NASA to capture the Genesis probe that was intended to land in the Utah desert. But the parachute failed to deploy and it crashed.
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