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TIL NBC’s Dateline aired a segment showing gas tanks on General Motors pickup trucks tended to explode on even low-speed impacts. G.M. responded with an investigation showing that Dateline had rigged explosions in the show by affixing model-rocket engines to a truck’s underbody.

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QNZJ6 TIL Nuclear-powered aircraft were researched by both the USA and Soviet Union, but were ultimately impractical compared to submarines and ICBMs
865L TIL in order to capture a genuine look of surprise on Hans Gruber’s face, Alan Rickman was dropped one second early at the end of Die Hard.
gMkoW TIL there is a small Antarctic island called Shagnasty Island, named after the blue-eyed shags the researchers found there.
4kX9R TIL The Beatles single “Hey Jude” was almost not released because record executives thought the vinyl label was pornographic.
1PrO TIL that the last execution by electric chair in the United States before Furman v. Georgia was done to James D. French whose last words before his death were “How’s this for your headline? ‘French Fries’”.