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TIL Alan Shepard peed in his spacesuit moments before becoming the first American in space

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DQGBY TIL a 1970's startup tried to design a flying car by attaching Cessna wings to a Ford Pinto. After a test pilot was forced to land early, a second test flight was conducted on Sept 11, 1973, by the startup's two founders themselves, both of whom were killed in the fiery crash that followed.
Y79XP TIL that racially segregated school proms were still happening in the US as late as 2013
6X6J TIL that the aliens from the movie franchise Alien were based off of deep sea creatures found in Earth’s oceans.
OodGg TIL that Tolkien invented the concept of Orcs for purely for Lord of the Rings - basing their name off of an ancient Roman God of the Underworld
74E7 TIL The Irish once had vast political and military influence in south America, examples include Irishmen founding the Argentine and Uruguayan navies, an Irishman served as the military Governor of Chile and Irishmen served as the Aide-de-Camp’s to leaders such as Simon Bolivar and José de San Martín