› added 7 years ago

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TIL that Willie Nelson’s (ex) wife sewed him up in a sheet and beat him with a broomstick. His comment: “She was a very classy, ingenious, brilliant lady, and I was a problem at times.”

GoA1 TIL that in 1976, a Soviet pilot defected to Japan in his advanced MiG-25 fighter, which Russia demanded be returned. Japan complied, but only after allowing American engineers to examine the aircraft. Japan then shipped it back piece by piece, and billed Russia $40,000 in transport and labor costs.
BgEy TIL: In a 1956 football (soccer) final, Keeper Bert Trautmann broke his neck on the pitch but continued to play for the remaining 15 minutes to see out his team’s victory. Prince Philip commented on the crooked state of Trautmann’s neck as he gave him his winner’s medal
6doW TIL when accused of influencing a suicide pact by backmasking the words “Do it” in one of their songs, Judas Priest said that if they wanted to insert subliminal commands, they would have preferred to insert the command “buy more of our records”.
GAZpN TIL of Direct collapse black holes, where black holes in the early universe could form directly via the collapse of dense gas, rather than requiring stars to form first and then collapse into a black hole.
1ad0d TIL US citizens are essentially tax prisoners everywhere they go and even if they've never physically lived in the US - subject to laborious reporting requirements with punitive penalties for non-compliance that grow even larger if they try to leave the system by ending citizenship.