› added 12 years ago

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TIL John Lennon once saw a UFO. Lennon called his photographer who told him to call the police, but Lennon laughed and said, “I’m not going to call up the newspaper and say, ‘This is John Lennon and I saw a flying saucer last night’.”

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KOGLG TIL that fighter pilots, even old ones, can take a punch. In 1989, a man punched retired astronaut John Glenn on live TV. Glenn, unfazed, immediately assisted in apprehending the assailant.
mZvP TIL that organized “wife swapping” was started in the 1940s on U.S. Air Force bases by fighter pilots and their wives. Researchers found it was “a kind of tribal bonding ritual, with a tacit understanding that the two thirds of husbands who survived would look after the widows.”
7axL TIL that India had qualified for FIFA World cup in 1950 but later withdrew because FIFA rules demanded that all players had to play with Shoes. Indian players were only accustomed to play with barefoot. And the organization was financially strained. This lead to Cricket taking the edge later on
W7aPo TIL that Magnolias are so ancient they evolved before bees, which is why they’re pollinated by beetles. Modern magnolias have changed little since the age of dinosaurs, preserving a design that once bloomed under the same skies as Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops.
PY1bL TIL that in 2005, one sheep decided to jump over a cliff, enticing nearly fifteen hundred others to follow. Only the first 450 were killed, as the remaining animals' falls were cushioned by the dead bodies below.