› added 9 years ago

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TIL: Dwight Eisenhower smoked 4 packs a day, but quit cold turkey and never smoked again after being advised to quit. He attributed his success to developing a scornful attitude toward smokers who couldn’t quit, saying, “I nursed to the utmost my ability to sneer at them.”

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QJ85e TIL despite the $100 note being the most counterfeited USD currency outside the States, within the US the most commonly counterfeited note is actually the $20.
0w1eN TIL in 1987 Walter Payton who played for the Chicago Bears, accidentally shot a man in the knee while holding a collectors handgun that he was unaware of being loaded.
D10xP TIL: Duke Ellington's signature tune, "Take the 'A' Train" was recovered from a trash can just in time before being gone forever. Composer Billy Strayhorn had discarded it as second rate.
8eQpZ TIL of Peter Badcoe, an Australian infantry officer fighting in the Vietnam War who received the Victoria Cross from Australia; then a Purple heart, Silver Star and Air Medal by the USA; and then a National Order plus at least two Crosses of Gallantry by the Republic of South Vietnam.
xVj47 TIL that Chuck Yeager, the first pilot confirmed to have exceeded the speed of sound in level flight (in 1947), is still alive today and is 95 years old