› added 10 years ago

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TIL that Arthur Shawcross, a man who raped and killed 2 children, was sentenced to 25 years in prison but was paroled early because it was concluded that he was “no longer dangerous”. Eleven months after being released he started killing again, murdering 12 women before being captured.

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grOEy TIL The Hale telescope features a 200 inch (5.08m) diameter mirror. The mirror took 10 months anneal and was delivered to Caltech in 1936. The telescope was completed in 1948 as it took years of grinding and polishing to make the mirror accurate to 2/1,000,000ths of an inch of a perfect paraboloid.
D1ByV TIL Oliver Stone admitted to being on ecstasy during a 1997 celebrity episode of Jeopardy! He won the game (and $15,000 for charity), and credits the drug with increasing his response time on the buzzer.
VMG6Z TIL about Kenneth Taylor and George Welch, the first two American pilots to get airborne during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Both were recommended for the Medal of Honor, but this was denied on the basis that they had “taken off without orders.” Together they shot down six Japanese planes.
JOy1 TIL that in 1980, a Texaco oil rig drilled into the top of a salt mine underneath Lake Peigneur in Louisiana, causing the lake to drain into the sinkhole – swallowing 11 barges – and a nearby canal to reverse direction. All 55 miners in the salt mine escaped. The lake is now permanently saltwater.
6E6RZ TIL the term "kangaroo court" comes from travelling judges "hopping from place to place, guided less by concern for justice than by the desire to wrap up as many trials as the day allowed."