› added 6 years ago

76

TIL when John Glenn became the first man to orbit the Earth in 1962, he carried a note that read "I am a stranger. I come in peace. Take me to your leader and there will be a massive reward for you in eternity" translated into several languages, in case he splashed down in the remote South Pacific

Read more nmspacemuseum.org

via reddit.com

x6K0o TIL the red memorial poppy commemorating deceased veterans on Remembrance Day was originated by an American woman from Georgia
p8ZVZ TIL that the man who played the first zombie in the video for Michael Jackson's Thriller, as well as the zombie whose arm falls off, is a makeup and special effects designer who went on to help create Daft Punk's famous helmets, amongst other things
9wK4r TIL that the largest trial in world history was the Maxi Trial against the Sicilian Mafia, that lasted 6 years. Of the 475 mobsters indicted, 338 were convicted and sentenced to a total of 2,665 years, not including life sentences handed to 19 bosses
1aLjX Til that over 200 armed children stormed a graveyard in 1950s Scotland, hunting for an iron-fanged vampire!
e0mob TIL Upton Sinclair's novel "The Jungle" was never about the meatpacking industry. Sinclair intended it as a "breaking of human hearts by a system which exploits the labor of men and women for profit".