› added 5 years ago

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TIL the Bopal Chemical Disaster in India, where a methyl-isocyanate leak (500 times deadlier than hydrogen cyanide) from a factory killed more than 8000 residents in one night. The MIC leak went undetected due to the factory's earlier removal of the alarm siren in order to not disturb its neighbours

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9Y59D TIL that a NASA intern unknowingly purchased original footage from the Apollo 11 voyage at a government auction in 1976 for $217.77. He found out over 30 years later and sold them for $1.82m at Sotheby’s.
KGA4 TIL the Beatles played a demo copy of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” before its release at full volume from an open apartment window at 6AM. Instead of complaining, the residents opened their windows and listened, aware they were hearing unreleased Beatles music.
kOw4E TIL that Iran has a disproportionately high rate of penile fracture due to a local practice called taghaandan, "to click or snap when forcibly pushing the erect penis down" to get rid of an unwelcome erection
16kyD TIL that after the trailer of Grand Theft Auto VI was released, its featured song, Tom Petty's "Love Is a Long Road", saw a near-37,000% increase in Spotify streams, had almost 250,000 searches on Shazam, and ranked second on the worldwide iTunes chart
GAGGg TIL in 2004 Eminem co-executive produced the Tupac album Loyal to the Game with Pac's mom, Afeni Shakur. Em showed his gratitude to Afeni by sending her a drawing of Pac & a heartfelt letter. He told her that Pac inspired his whole career & thanked her for the opportunities that she afforded him.