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TIL during WW2 when Ford produced the Merlin engine they claimed they couldn't following the sent plans. Rolls-Royce, designer of the Merlin, assumed Ford was incapable of meeting their high standards, only to learn that the tolerances were too loose and didn't meet the precision required for cars

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N7ROP TIL that 50 yrs ago today, the US conducted its largest underground nuclear test. A W71 warhead was detonated in a 7-ft-wide, 5,873-ft-deep shaft beneath Amchitka Island, Alaska. The yield was about 5 Megatons. The explosion raised the ground 25 ft, later collapsing into a 1-mile-wide, 60-ft crater.
emO6 TIL that when blown up to the same scales, Kansas is actually flatter than a pancake
v1l7j TIL of Dondurma, a Turkish variant of ice cream typically sold from carts, where the vendor deliberately pranks the customer before serving the actual cone
x6en7 TIL The Gjøa left from the port of Oslofjord in 1903 when Norway was still in a union with Sweden. Over the next three years she was the first to sail the Northwest Passage and returned home to an independent Norway. The crew became some of the nation's first heroes.
JYxeV TIL in 1990 Marilyn vos Savant wrote about the "Monty Hall problem" in her column in Parade magazine, correctly answering the statistical brainteaser. Thousands wrote to her to insist she was wrong, including many people with PhDs. Mythbusters even confirmed she was right in a 2011 episode.