› added 9 years ago

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TIL Continental Flight 1713 crashed just after take-off killing 28 people, due to perhaps the most incompetent pilot to ever be hired by a major airline. He had only 36 total hours of experience flying jets. Failed 3 previous flight exams, forgot procedure, had panic attacks, and crashed simulators.

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yaav TIL that in 1913, Hitler, Trotsky, Tito, Freud and Stalin all lived in Vienna and some were even regular patrons of the same coffeeshop
oBQRY TIL there are only 15 countries (sovereign states, not dependencies) in the world without official armed forces. Out of these, 12 are islands. Only Andorra, Vatican City, and Liechtenstein are located on mainland. The largest population is held by the Solomon Islands with a little over 650,000.
E1gxp TIL soda is dispensed in plastic bags in the Philippines.
R7RW6 TIL: When Richard Dawkins originally coined the term, a "meme" was a basic elements of culture just as a gene is the basic component of genetics.
w7kM TIL The Hammer of Thor is one of the official religious emblems available for headstones in U.S. military cemeteries.