› added 3 years ago

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TIL that the first black woman to travel to space was Mae Jemison, who was a mission specialist on the Space Shuttle Endeavor in 1992. She later appeared on "Star Trek: The Next Generation", making her the first person to have been on Star Trek and in space IRL.

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woNJ6 TIL that, following the success of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq's "most wanted" playing cards, the US Department of Defense printed "Archaeology Awareness" playing cards. They were intended to educate soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan about the importance of protecting archaeological sites.
6E6Nw TIL of Henry “Box” Brown. A slave who escaped the slave state by mailing himself in a 3 foot X 2 foot X 8 inches deep box from Virginia to Philadelphia. The journey took 27 hours and he had a little water and some biscuits as food. Brown became a prolific Anti Slavery speaker
bMVQ TIL a 35 year-old gold miner, using only hand tools and dynamite, moved 5,800 tons of granite, building a half-mile tunnel to move his ore. He finished the project at age 67.
R57D6 TIL that Winston Churchhill defended the collaborationist Security Batallions of Greece, which encouraged them to commit war crimes under the belief that their actions would go unpunished. Almost all of them walked free after the Allies won WWII.
wmOE TIL that playing action video games trains people to make the right decisions faster without loss of accuracy. Video game players develop a heightened sensitivity to what is going on around them, which helps with multitasking, driving, keeping track of friends in a crowd, and navigating around town.