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TIL In 1993, Dateline NBC strapped model rocket engines to GM trucks for a televised crash-test so the trucks would explode on impact. After a GM lawsuit, three producers were fired and the reporter demoted.

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neaaG TIL that before the adoption of artificial light in the 18th and 19th centuries, there's historical evidence for "first sleep" and "second sleep"—that is, an interrupted pattern of sleep in two shifts of slumber roughly four hours each, with a period of wakefulness in between.
gMW84 TIL Jackie Chan once fled to the USA to avoid Hong Kong triads. He claims they once shot at him while he was getting off of a plane and that he later was surrounded by "more than 20 people ... with melon knives ... [I] confronted them with two guns and six grenades".
VrkD TIL In 1996 the infamous serial killer ‘The Yorkshire Ripper’ was almost strangled to death in custody, before being saved by serial killer Kenneth Erskine aka 'The Stockwell Strangler’.
QJeNL TIL that Pharrell Williams was in the Hollaback Girl Official video
7VWr TIL Tiririca, a Brazilian Clown, used slogans including “What does a federal congressman do? I really don’t know – but if you vote for me, I’ll tell ya” and “It can’t get any worse, vote Tiririca”. He became the second-most-voted congressman in Brazil’s history, with 1,348,295 votes.