› added 4 years ago

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TIL Alexei Leonov, the first man to perform a spacewalk, almost wasn't able to get back in the capsule as his suit had expanded in the vacuum of space. Many problems plagued the mission including a poor landing 240mi off course forcing the 2 man crew to survive for 2 days in the freezing wilderness.

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AJ94 TIL that in polytheistic Rome only few hundred people were killed over religious disputes in few hundred years. When Rome turned monotheistic, millions were killed over religious grounds in a few decades
WkLEY TIL 90% of Chinese teenagers and young adults suffer from myopia (short-sightedness), up from 10-20% 60 years ago
xVj4g TIL that the term "Down Syndrome" was adopted globally at the behest of Mongolia to replace the offensive term 'Mongoloid'
5NMR TIL in the 1980’s, over 6,000 Hemophiliacs living in the US were given HIV-tainted blood by health care companies still active today.
bpjN TIL the inside of a cucumber can be 20 degrees cooler than outside - ‘cool as a cucumber’.