› added 7 years ago

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TIL the design of the Space Shuttle was influenced by the United States Air Force, which wanted the ability to snatch Soviet spy satellites out of orbit.

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4XrVg TIL that birds are dinosaurs.
GAokQ TIL that Jesse James stole a gold shipment from America's transcontinental railroad in 1873. A Chinese student wrote "nothing occurred on our Eastward journey to mar the enjoyment ... excepting a train robbery, a consequent smashup of the engine, and the murder of the engineer".
d8WB7 TIL that Boston Corbett, the Union army solider who fatally shot John Wilkes Booth, later went insane and was incarcerated in a mental asylum (Topeka Asylum for the Insane) in 1887. He escaped from the facility a year later and was never seen again.
D1Z4j TIL after Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of SpongeBob Squarepants, graduated high school he worked as a fry cook during summers at a restaurant in Islesford, Maine known as Islesford Dock Restaurant. The restaurant would later be the inspiration for the Krusty Krab in the show.
e04B6 TIL Two metal detectorists who thought they'd found a stash of Roman gold coins they estimated to be worth £250,000 discovered the coins were actually a worthless prop for TV show The Detectorists.