› added 8 months ago

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TIL: In 1962, a bear caused a false alarm at a US air base and almost caused nuclear war

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via reddit.com

AX4l TIL the “cheerleader effect”, the theory that girls look more attractive in groups, is scientifically proven
WOpB TIL that Martin Luther King Jr’s assassin, James Earl Ray was once erroneously honoured during a parade which intended to praise the actor James Earl Jones. Lauderdale, Florida accidentally created a plaque in January 2002 which read ‘Thanks James Earl Ray for keeping the dream alive’.
v10dx TIL that French queen Marie Antoinette was offered in 1787 a boy from Senegal as a servant but instead taking him as servant she adopted him as her son and baptized as Jean. During the revolution Jean was separated from the royal family and left by revolutionaries to die on streets at age of 10.
wLn61 TIL that despite the Seven Years' War between Britain and France, France instructed its ships not to interfere with the Endeavour's expedition to Tahiti to observe the 1769 Transit of Venus as, it was ‘out on enterprises of service to all mankind'.
N7JB1 TIL: The first-ever solar-powered satellite, Vanguard 1, is "the oldest human-made object still in orbit" (plus some of its launch rocket). Launched in 1958, it stopped talking in 1964 but continues orbiting. The three sats older than it (Sputniks 1 & 2, Explorer 1) are no longer in orbit.