› added 3 years ago

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TIL that in 2003, Ekaterina Dmitrieva married the cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko through a video call while he was in orbit, with a cardboard cutout of him as a proxy. As he hadn't sought permission, weddings in space were banned afterwards, he's therefore the only man in history who married in space.

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via reddit.com

vPY1R TIL A 2004 British reality show selected nine contestants for their suggestibility, tricked them into thinking they were flown to Russia, then had them compete to become space tourists. The "winners" were placed on a simulator and tricked into thinking they were in space for five days.
9Y0VX TIL that "Peacock" is not the name of the bird, but is in fact the term for a male "Peafowl". A female peafowl is called a "Peahen"
GADx1 TIL that in the Brazilian Amazon there’s a thousand year old stone observatory similar to Stonehenge
0dGA1 TIL that 23 US presidents boast Irish heritage.
PYnPJ TIL of Hershel Williams, a W. VA farm boy who earned the Medal of Honor for Valor at Iwo Jima, 75 years ago this month. He was the last man standing in his special weapons unit, wielding a flamethrower to clear out 7 Japanese fortified pill boxes. Now 96, he is one of the few WW2 MoH holders alive.