› added 7 years ago

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TIL about Aimo Koivunen, a Finnish ski commando who in 1944 escaped from pursuing Russians by taking 30 pills of Pervitin. He skied for 400 kilometers in -20C temperatures with no food and ammunition, got injured by a landmine, and had a pulse rate of 200 beats per minute by the time he was found.

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loP5a TIL the term "meritocracy" was coined by Michael Young in his 1958 dystopian essay "The Rise of the Meritocracy" to demonstrate the social dysfunctions he predicted arising in societies where the elites believe that they are successful entirely on the basis of merit.
XE6oD TIL Actress Tippi Hedren, star of Hitchcock's "The Birds" was instrumental in beginning the association between Vietnamese-Americans and the nail salon industry.
epEpg TIL that the closest landmass to the antipode (the spot on the diametrically opposite side of the globe) of London is literally called the Antipodes Islands - they were previously called the Penantipodes, meaning 'next to the antipodes'.
68V7 TIL that during WW2 the Allies discovered that the Germans were using the Leaning Tower of Pisa as an observation post. A U.S Army Sergeant that was sent to the tower to confirm the presence of German troops was impressed by its beauty and decided to not order an artillery strike on it.
dDrZB TIL of the Cavalese incident of 1998 that occurred on February 3, 1998, in Cavalese, Italy. A US Marine Corps aircraft was flying at a low altitude when it severed the cable of a ski lift. The cable car plummeted to the ground, resulting in the deaths of all 20 people on board.