Post * 5WBp — Curious Curator

› added 10 years ago

67

TIL that preventing an abort of the Apollo 11 mission has been attributed to the work of Margaret Hamilton, the lead flight software designer for Project Apollo. She was 31 when the lunar module landed on the moon, running her code, and is credited for coining the term “software engineering.”

Read more

DRKe TIL that Theodore Roosevelt once supported a bill that would have allowed the introduction of Hippos into the Bayous of Louisiana. It fell just short of being passed.

v8RB TIL a boy gave General Rahl of the British Army a note from a spy that George Washington was about to cross the Delaware and attack. The general was so immersed in a Chess game that he put the note in his pocket unopened. There it was found when he was mortally wounded in the subsequent battle.

EgPMX TIL that sitting on a sea turtle in the United States is a felony where you can get up to 5 years in prison, and pay a $250,000 fine.

W7krA TIL that after the failed Paris Commune in 1871, many of its supporters were exiled to the French dependency New Caledonia in the Pacific. The majority of them were eventually granted amnesty by president Adolfe Thiers in 1879, and allowed to return to France.

R5DN7 TIL about Desmond Doss. The movie Hacksaw Ridge tells his story of saving the lives of 75 men. The truth is more incredible. The number was closer to 150 and he did so with a shattered arm, something not depicted in the movie, as the director felt it would be too much for the audience to believe.