› added 13 years ago

316

TIL the captain of the Titanic originally failed his navigation test.

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via reddit.com

grde4 TIL that “smog” is a made-up word, just combining “smoke” and “fog”.
Y7QOZ TIL that in addition to Kamikaze aircraft, Japan during WWII had manned suicide torpedoes called Kaiten. Once sealed in, the pilots could not unlock the hatches and the device would self destruct if the mission failed.
E14QV TIL: During the Islamic invasions of India, many Jains temporarily let go of their principal of ahimsa (absolute non-violence) in order to defend the destruction of their temples.
jNmYM TIL when brainstorming the time travel plot for Star Trek: First Contact, they considered sending the crew back to the Renaissance, befriending Leonardo da Vinci, and having sword fights alongside phaser fights. The idea was scrapped for being too campy and Patrick Stewart refused to wear tights.
JY8Y4 TIL That Pres. Bush was almost assassinated in 2005 after Vladimir Arutyunian threw a live RGD-5 hand grenade wrapped in a handkerchief at him. Miraculously it failed to detonate because the handkerchief remained around the grenade preventing the striker lever from releasing