› added 10 months ago

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TIL about Charles Dickens’ son Frank, who joined the predecessors of Canada’s iconic Mounties after failing the British Foreign Office exams, losing his officer’s commission in the Bengal Mounted Police, and “squandering his inheritance on poor investments and disssipated living."

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5EAp TIL Scientists lit a hole filled with natural gas on fire in 1971, thinking it would burn for only a few days. The hole has been burning for the past 46 years and is called “The Door to Hell”
JYDXQ TIL Michel Vaujour a French convict jailed in 1986 for attempted murder and armed robbery "forced his way onto the prison's roof by wielding nectarines that were painted to look like grenades." His wife then picked him up in a helicopter and whisked him away.
MeyxB TIL a Navajo blanket was appraised on PBS’s “Antiques Roadshow” for $500,000. After seeing the broadcast, a disabled man realized he had a similar blanket which had been sitting in his closet for 7 years. He took it to an auctioneer and its final bid was $1.5 million.
x5go TIL: Valve got so tired of ‘the cake is a lie’ memes that they made a point to keep the cake out of Portal 2.
YAQr TIL the BBC ran a contest asking vacationers for pictures of French beaches prior to D-Day to help gather intelligence and determine whether the beach was suitable for an amphibious landing.