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TIL That the first Victoria Cross was awarded to a 20 year old Ships Mate, for picking up a live shell that landed on the deck and throwing it overboard. He was promoted on the spot, rose to the rank of Rear Admiral and married the Captains daughter.

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BkBy TIL when John Glenn flew above Perth, Australia in 1962 aboard Friendship 7, the city’s homes, cars, and streetlights were lit for him. When Glenn returned to space aboard STS-95 in 1998, Perth repeated their act of friendship.
a88Zb TIL about Kendall Myers, the grandson of the first full-time editor of National Geographic (credited w/ having built the magazine into the iconic publication that it is today) and also great grandson of Alexander Graham Bell is serving a life sentence in the U.S.'s only supermax prison for espionage
jklM TIL Janice Joplin was voted “Ugliest Man on Campus” by fraternity brothers at UT Austin while she was a student there.
awN4L TIL The Anthropocene is the newest Epoch and is defined by human impact on the geologic record. The two major proposed markers for the Epoch are nuclear fallout/products and chicken bones. Chickens were domesticated 8ka but the modern broiler is easily distinguished in modern human settlements.
pYd4Q TIL the Ampex corporation in the 1950s sold the first 8 track recorder machine to musician Les Paul (solid body electric guitar pioneer). It was installed in Paul's home studio in 1957 for $10,000 which was roughly three times the US average yearly income in 1957 and equivalent to $107,000 in 2023.