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TIL the Wright Bros, after numerous incident-free tests, were poised to make their pitch for the Army airplane contract. With Lt. Thomas Selfridge as passenger, the plane crashed, injuring Orville and killing Selfridge, resulting in the first airplane fatality. They received the contract anyway.

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Jy81 TIL a volcanologist died at an observation camp when Mount St. Helens exploded in 1980. He had agreed, for one day, to fill in for a colleague who was rotating out a third scientist based at the camp. The man rotated out died 11 years later during the Mount Unzen (Japan) eruption.
ewxL TIL that Jackie Chan is a staunch supporter of China’s communist party, thinks Taiwanese democracy is “the biggest joke in the world,” and believes Chinese citizens need to be “controlled” through censorship, “otherwise they’ll do whatever they want.”
bGJE TIL that in 1978 a man with a shotgun held a Melbourne cafe hostage until his mother turned up in her night gown and hit him over the head with her handbag. He gave himself up soon after.
YpAOx TIL of Iranian painter Mohamed Sciddel who was commissioned to paint murals in the main church in Uruapan, Michoacán and decided to live the rest of his life in Mexico to promote art in the region after being exiled from Iran following the 1979 revolution
GYQy7 TIL Tupac Shakur's favorite song was the folk-pop song 'Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)' by Don McLean, so much so that when fatally wounded in a drive-by his girlfriend ensured it was the last song he listened to.