› added 9 years ago

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TIL that Japanese paratroopers in WWII had rifles that folded in half. They quickly discovered that these modifications didn’t work too well.

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J1Rek TIL: in 1906 a group of 500 students from Missouri State University demanded they be let into the Cole Bros. circus for $0.25 instead of $0.50. When they couldn't stay for the concert after the show they marched to the train yard ripped up rails and greased them so the train couldn't leave town.
oV7E TIL Bryers Ice Cream, the company that prided itself on using only few, all natural ingredients had to change their labels to read “Frozen Dairy Dessert” because based on the ingredients they couldn’t legally sell their product as ice cream.
PY1MG TIL the founder of the Alaskan Independence Party, which advocates Alaska's secession from the United States, was murdered in a botched plastic explosives sale and was buried in Dawson City, Yukon, reflecting his oft-stated wish not to be buried on American soil.
m1JBM TIL that in 1994, a Washington State man’s death sentence was overturned because the Judge believed that the man’s weight could cause him to be decapitated by the scheduled hanging - deeming him “too obese to hang”
8eEnX TIL that Ian Fleming, of James Bond fame, had an affair with the mother of the founder of Island Records, Chris Blackwell, who helped make reggae music internationally popular and recorded some of its biggest names