› added 1 year ago

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TIL about the "Night Witches", a regiment of female fighter pilots in the Red Army. Relegated only to outdated biplanes, they nonetheless struck fear into invading German forces.

7DRP TIL the familiar ‘valentine’ logo at the beginning and ending of 'I Love Lucy’ wasn’t added until the show went into syndication. The show was originally sponsored by Philip Morris, and began with Lucy and Ricky dancing around a huge pack of cigarettes.
xpL0 TIL that a few years ago, Bahrain’s oppressed and overcrowded Shiite majority began using Google Earth to view palaces and other estates that make up 95% of the country. As these images churned up discontent, the government blocked Google Earth.
neYXB TIL that the common method for a spacecraft to shift between two orbits is called a Hohmann Transfer, and that the guy who calculated it (in 1925) was inspired by a science fiction book written in 1897, which gave a generally correct explanation of the concept of orbit trajectory
x6k5b TIL after the death of Larry Hillblom on 1995, several children and their mothers from across South East Asia claimed he was their father. As no DNA from Larry was available due to him dying in a plane crash, the probate court searched for claimants with shared DNA
gMNWL TIL that when Spanish King Ferdinand II (funder of Columbus) went to war with the French over Naples, despite previously signing an agreement to partition the region, he said: "The King of France complains that I have twice deceived him. He lies, the fool; I have deceived him ten times and more."