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TIL: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin almost died on the moon due to a faulty switch. As a result, they were unable to blast off into lunar orbit so Buzz Alrdin had to fix the issue by jamming a pen into the broken switch

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via reddit.com

xVbD1 TIL the potato was popularized in France largely by one man who placed guards around his potato field and instructed them to "accept any and all bribes from civilians".
b95Dp TIL: Oranges are a hesperidium, a kind of modified berry with sectioned pulp inside a separable rind. The sweet orange, which accounts for 70% of global orange production, is a hybrid of ancient cultivated origin between a pomelo and a mandarin.
wLGwW NASA has successfully tested an advanced air-to-air photographic technology in flight, capturing the first-ever images of the interaction of shockwaves from two supersonic aircraft in flight.
M818 TIL the “TTC Sleeper”, a Toronto transit employee who was caught sleeping on the job and was mocked in countless memes, died 10 months later due to health issues that caused him to fall asleep on the job.
xV8bk TIL The International Chopin Piano Competition has been held every five years since 1955. It is one of the few competitions devoted entirely to the works of a single composer