› added 7 years ago

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TIL of Charles Lightoller, the most senior officer to survive the Titanic, who forced men to leave the lifeboats at gunpoint so only women and children could board. He was then pinned underwater for some time, until a blast of hot air from the ventilator blew him to the surface.

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dDvb9 TIL Joseph Bazalgette, the man who designed London's sewers in the 1860's, said 'Well, we're only going to do this once and there's always the unforeseen' and doubled the pipe diameter. If he had not done this, it would have overflowed in the 1960's (its still in use today).
e0kWk TIL there are microscopic living things in solid rock up to 7 km deep, called Endoliths. So little energy is available they undergo cell division once every 100 years, and some may only divide once every 10,000 years.
JYDkV TIL the top of the giant redwood forest were thought to be a lifeless wasteland. But explorers recently discover their canopy contains an entire ecosystem. A lake of fern, top soil a meter deep in its branches, trees and other plants, and crustaceans that only live in water all live up there.
NjgN TIL all new employees and recently-promoted executives at the Japanese company Dentsu have to climb Mount Fuji. This has happened every July since 1925.
D1NQp TIL Concorde flew so high passengers received twice the dose of radiation from flying in a conventional aircraft, which was believed to increase cancer risk. The flight deck contained a radiometer so they could descend in case of a solar storm.