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253

TIL That the Pledge of Allegiance was a marketing tool to sell flags to US schools

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Wk0dL TIL a study titled "Where Are They Now?" in 1978 followed up on 515 people who were prevented from attempting suicide using the Golden Gate Bridge from 1937 to 1971. About 90% were either alive or had died of natural causes, concluding "suicidal behavior is crisis-oriented" rather than inexorable.
168A7 TIL about conservation-induced extinction, where attempts to save a critically endangered species directly cause the extinction of another.
GRPE TIL in 1961 a b-52 broke apart mid air over Goldsboro, North Carolina causing two nuclear bombs to fall. One parachute functioned properly, that bomb survived. When the other bomb hit the ground 5 out of 6 safety devices malfunctioned, a single switch prevented a nuclear explosion.
Zwna TIL 11,000 work-years were dedicated to the NASA inter-planetary Voyager Program through to the Neptune Encounter. This is equivalent to a third of the work estimated to complete the Great Pyramid at Giza.
grZJb TIL that sloths only move an average of 40 yards (36.576 meters) per day when they are on land and in trees. In the water, they could cover that distance in just under 3 minutes.