› added 11 years ago

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TIL In 1995 a Marine fell overboard his ship unnoticed. He survived by treading water for 3 days until a Pakistani fishing boat found him.

JYXoV TIL that the word restaurant (meaning "[something] restoring") was first used in France in the 16th century, to refer to a highly concentrated, inexpensive soup, sold by street vendors, that was advertised as an antidote to physical exhaustion.
rR6Gw TIL that in 1783, a mysterious admirer of Marie Antoinette ordered her a most complicated pocket watch from Breguet. It included hours, minutes, seconds, perpetual calendar, equation of time, repetition for hours, quarters and minutes, independent seconds, thermometer and power-reserve indicator.
YpwrA TIL During the 2021 ice storm in Texas an off-duty paramedic's FJ Cruiser was crushed by a semi truck in a pileup on I-35. The paramedic survived the hit, climbed out of his crushed vehicle, and began applying aid to others in the crash.
M71Jb TIL about “Unsinkable Sam” a cat who survived the sinking of 3 famous ships: the first was the Bismarck followed by HMS Cossack then HMS Ark Royal – both of which had earlier helped to sink the Bismarck. After the Ark Royal sank, he was retired to the UK.
e0vdk TIL that while Mexico only drinks 50% more soda per capital than the US(100L & 150L respectively), the Mexican state of Chiapas drinks 820L per capital every year(2.2L per day) due to the drink being introduced into the religious activities of the Mayan people of the region