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TIL German-Italian microcar BMW Isetta was modified to hide a person inside the engine bay in order to escape unsuspecting East German border police. Nine people were able to defect successfully before being discovered.

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via reddit.com

Yp6DP TIL about Solar Maximum cycles and the Carrington Event. A solar storm that hit Earth powerful enough to start fires and cause sparks from telegraph wires. The aurora was seen as close to the equator as South America and Northern Australia. The next Solar cycle is predicted to start this year.
yxOv TIL: During the American Civil War, Russia sent several naval fleets to dock in New York City, just in case Great Britain or France tried to attack the Union.
KO4L6 TIL That in 1948 the Idaho Department of Fish and Game used surplus parachutes from WWII to drop threatened beavers into a nearby protected area. After some careful calibrations, 76 beavers made the skydive and all but one survived the drop.
wmyM TIL The voter turnout for US presidential elections hasn’t breached 62.8% in the last 100 years
gMR99 TIL: Hoping to make the visitor experience more memorable, a museum added "sniffing stations" to its dinosaur exhibit. Scientific thought went into simulating (among other scents) Tyrannosaurus rex' bad breath.