yVpBJ TIL Mary Ann Franco in 1993 lost her vision after being in a severe car accident and suffered a stroke as well. 23 years later she tripped and fell over her home tiles and had to get surgery on her spine. When she woke up she could fully see, and no one fully knows why.
m1BRP TIL about Juan Pedro Martínez Gómez, a 10-year-old boy who was riding with his parents in a tanker carrying 20,000 litres of sulphuric acid. As the truck was passing through the Somosierra mountain pass, it lost control and crashed. Though the bodies of his parents were found, Juan's body vanished.
DQlMv TIL during WWII, a Dutch minesweeper ship trapped by the Japanese Navy escaped by disguising itself as a tropical island. The crew covered the deck in trees and vegetation, and painted the hull to look like rocks. They anchored next to nearby islands in the day and successfully evaded enemy aircraft
vPol4 TIL that in 1989, a man named Kenneth Noid held two Domino’s Pizza employees hostage at gunpoint for five hours; he believed that Domino’s advertising slogan “Avoid the Noid” was targeted at him. The employees managed to escape when he got hungry and ate some pizza.
J1kbQ TIL that after being shot down by a Japanese aircraft during a raid on Darwin on the 2nd of May 1943, RAAF pilot Ross Stagg survived 16 days in the Australian outback before being found and taken to a hospital for treatment. He made a full recovery and returned to combat.
pYkOZ TIL The Niger River stretches over 4,000 km, it winds its way through several West African nations, yet its source lies surprisingly close to the Atlantic, in the Guinea Highlands, a mere 320 km inland.
GABMN TIL about Rabbit show jumping. Rabbit jumping started in Sweden in the 1970s, domestic rabbits are led through a course by their owners, modelled after horse show jumping. A rabbit has a set time to complete the course. If the time runs out before the course is completed, the rabbit is disqualified.
16mbr TIL that CBS aired National Driving Quiz shows in the 1960s
oRE5K TIL: During the early stages of romantic attraction, your cortisol levels rise while serotonin levels decrease. This is why being "love-struck" can lead to anxiety, obsessive thoughts, or a loss of appetite.
dDOjr TIL in 1864 the Union Army opened a hospital in occupied Alexandria, Virginia, for African American troops and contraband civilians, and named it for Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint L’Ouverture.
KY5jQ TIL: All-star Hollywood Director William Wyler flew along on real bombing missions over Germany to film them. Had he been shot down, he would not have had the rights of a POW: as a Jew, he would have gone to a concentration camp.
a8Rj9 TIL about Sarah Boone, who was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison after she locked her boyfriend, Jorge Torres Jr. in a suitcase and left him to suffocate.