› added 4 years ago

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TIL in 1985 the US tested a robotic anti-aircraft tank, the M247 Sergeant York. The tank malfunctioned and locked its guns onto a review stand packed with top generals. Mercifully it didn't fire, but did subsequently attack a portable toilet instead of a target drone.

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x6NPk TIL the most effective surrender leaflet in WW2 was known as the "Passierschein". It was designed to appeal to German sensibilities for official, fancy documents printed on nice paper with official seals and signatures. It promised safe passage and generous treatment to any who presented it.
dx6E TIL Seth Rogen paid the bills and was the main wage earner of the family by the age of 16
dDD8d TIL in 1955, actor Ray Liotta was adopted from an orphanage at the age of six months. He hired a private detective to locate his biological mother in the 2000s, and learned that he had one biological sister, one biological half-brother, and five biological half-sisters.
egwD TIL that the phrase “writing on the wall” comes from a story in the Bible where a disembodied hand warns of the end of a kings reign.
4GJJ TIL that a conspiracy theory prompted Lee Harvey Oswald’s body to be exhumed on October 4th, 1981, to ensure the body wasn’t that of a look-alike Russian agent. Dental records confirmed the body was Oswald’s.