› added 9 years ago

67

TIL that Tom Hanks is an avid support of NASA’s manned space programs and originally wanted to be an astronaut, but “didn’t have the math”. He was awarded the Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award in 2006 for his contributions to raising public awareness of space programs.

6EJXl TIL an Italian man found wandering Edinburgh claiming to have no memory of who he was or how he got there admitted to faking amnesia to avoid his nagging mother-in-law. His disappearance from Pisa raised suspicion when online searches 'how to disappear' and 'how to fake memory loss' were discovered.
QAZp TIL After both of the leaders of his squadron were shot down over Vietnam, Merlyn Dethlefsen flew his damaged fighter back through enemy air defenses to scare off enemy fighters, then knocked out both missile sites defending the target. Saving 70 of the 72 friendly aircraft following him.
PjdO TIL Bing Crosby was rejected from a club in Vancouver for wearing only denim. When Levi’s heard they made him a denim tuxedo jacket, originating the term “Canadian Tuxedo”.
rRXLd TIL in 1941, with a lot of the Home Guard unarmed, Churchill wrote to the War Office that "every man must have a weapon of some sort, be it only a mace or a pike". The War Office took him literally and order 250,000 pikes, there was an uproar and none were ever issued.
4kNv6 TIL that 99.9% of Calico Cats are female. If there is a male, it is usually sterile because it is a gene mutation.