› added 6 years ago

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TIL of flight attendant Barbara Jane Harrison. After her plane went up in flames, she helped passengers out and after the slides were punctured, pushed them out to safety. She was just about to leave when she turned back into the burning plane to help more passengers, which cost her her life.

jNW6j TIL of the Holocaust memoir Fragments (1995), a worldwide hit that gained much critical acclaim. Its author was interviewed and went into further detail about his horrible experiences. In 1998, it was proved to be entirely fake and its author had never been involved at all in the Holocaust.
o9Gr TIL Norwegians consume the most cognac in the world, per person, in relation to the population (5 million)
GY4o1 TIL that the guy who holds the world record for most consecutive made free throws didn't even make the “A” basketball team in high school. He attributes his skill to the concentration he learned as a dairy farmer.
165nX TIL that, when Cleopatra VII. Philpator (the one we know from Shakespeare/Asterix) was born in 69 b.c., her greek family, the Ptolemies, had already been ruling Egypt for 236 years since 305 b.c., and been there since the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 b.c. or his death in 323 b.c.
941r TIL that according to the ‘Copyright Act 1911’ The British Library must receive a copy of every item published or distributed in the United Kingdom (including pamphlets, magazines, newspapers, sheet music and maps) in a practice know as 'legal deposit’, which can be traced back to at least 1610.