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TIL that physicist Robert Lang is one of the world’s leading experts in the art and mathematics of origami. As such, his origami designs have helped in the innovations of airbag safety, heart surgery, and telescopes.

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4XAja TIL of Chad Varah—a priest who started the first suicide hotline in 1953 after the first funeral he conducted early in his career was for a 14-year-old girl who took her own life after having no one to talk to when her first period came and believed she’d contracted an STD.
6E1em TIL that while experimenting on a jet pump project for NASA in his bathroom in 1982, Lonnie Johnson shot a stream of water across the room and thought, "This would make a great gun." The Super Soaker went on to make him some $73 million in royalties.⁠ ⁠
gM6OW TIL The all-time heat record of 134 °F (56.7 °C) at Death Valley on July 10, 1913 is highly contested, being described as "essentially not possible" given the conditions at the time by some meteorologists and especially questionable as it was recorded by an untrained and eccentric observer.
OKKg TIL that a blackout in New York City (1977) contributed to the growth of hip hop music as looting allowed a number of people to get access to expensive DJ equipment from electronic stores. From this moment on, Hip Hop, barely known outside the Bronx, grew at an astounding rate.
KOEBG TIL that in 1968, John Lennon, while tripping on acid, called an emergency meeting of the Beatles to inform them that he was the second coming of Jesus Christ.