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TIL that it used to be a job to drive around the country, constantly, driving and measuring every road, grade, elevation, and distance, in order to keep road maps updating accurately every two weeks. "Road scouts" would drive enough miles in a year to make multiple trips to the moon.

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BrB1D TIL the legendary cyclist Marco Pantani, with a resting heart rate of 34 BPM, had to wake up in the night and cycle on a stationary bike to make sure his heart rate didn't drop too low and cause a heart attack.
v1WXK Flying a helicopter on Mars is so damn hard but NASA made it possible. For the first flight, the helicopter took off, climbed to about 10 feet (3 meters) above the ground, hovered in the air briefly, completed a turn, and then landed. It was a major milestone: the very first powered flight in the extremely thin atmosphere of Mars, and, in fact, the first such flight in any world beyond Earth. Being able to fly a helicopter or drone on Mars is very important as they can cover 24 kilometers in an hour. By the way, Curiosity took nine years to travel less than 25 kilometers.
ZRgR TIL Onions are the only commodity banned from futures trading in the United States. The Onion Futures Act was passed in 1958 after two traders cornered the onion market in Chicago controlling 98% of all available onions.
e06bb TIL the Founder of Kodak, George Eastman, insisted the company use a 13 month, 28 day per month calendar. This system would be used by Kodak as the official date system from 1928 to 1989.
p8bL4 TIL of Japanese General and Poet, Nogi Maresuke, who took Port Arthur twice - from China (1894) and Russian (1904), sought permission from the emperor to kill himself as felt he lost too many soldiers in battle, was refused, so waited eight years and committed suicide right after the emperor died.