› added 5 years ago

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TIL after a Taliban fighter successfully shot down an American CH-47D Chinook, he bragged about it over his radio. Signals Intelligence was able to determine who had made the call and after only 2 days, an F-16, a C-130, and two Apache Gunships killed him and 5 others using their combined firepower.

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naxb TIL A man killed his wife inside the Walmart she was working at. Rather than close the store, they chose to just rope off the gore-splattered area while the police investigated.
m1YGy TIL of the SS Warrimoo, a ship that claims to have crossed the intersection of the International Date Line and the Equator precisely at the turn of the year from 1899 to 1900.
KO0K6 TIL that When Beethoven conducted premiere of Ninth Symphony in Vienna, he was completely deaf. After it ended, one of the soloists had to turn him around so he could see the audience applauding.
7jpp TIL of Gregor MacGregor, a 19th century confidence trickster who fooled over 500 people over 5 years to buy land in a fictional Latin American country called Poyais he claimed had been made ruler of. About half of the people who bought land died. He made a fortune, and was later tried and aquitted.
e05Kn TIL of COCOM limits, controls placed on GPS systems which stop them from functioning at a speed of over 1200 MPH and/or 59,000 feet. These are specifically in place to prevent the GPS from being used to guide missiles.