› added 3 years ago

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TIL that to avoid releasing the Watergate tapes to prosecutors, Nixon proposed that Democratic Senator John C. Stennis alone be able to listen to them. Stennis was both notoriously hard-of-hearing and heavily drugged after being shot earlier in the year. The offer was quickly rejected.

oBjL7 TIL that one Canadian tank, nicknamed "Bomb," never missed a day of service from when it landed in Normandy on D-Day until the surrender of Germany, firing over 6,000 rounds and taking two enemy hits across France, Belgium, and the Netherlands
9wVD7 Til 2 out of the 5 top U.S foreign aid recipients since WWII are failed states that no longer exist
lo9Pr TIL Mother Teresa encouraged members of her order to secretly baptise dying patients, without regard to the individual's religion. A former member of the MOC, writes that "Sisters were to ask each person in danger whether they want a 'ticket to heaven' to lure them for consent and then baptize them.
699mY TIL Brazil police sniper nearly shot officer during 2014 World Cup opening. Sniper asked permission to open fire on an armed man seen approaching Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. Permission was denied and the suspect turned out to be another policeman.
yVOr8 TIL the British had a secret WW2 plan called Operation Tracer to leave behind an observation post if the Germans captured Gibraltar. Six men were to be sealed inside a hidden chamber to observer the harbor and Strait of Gibraltar. They would have had 7 years of supplies and bicycle-powered radios.