› added 9 years ago

371

TIL: Real life castaway drifted into the Pacific Ocean for 13 months surviving off rainwater, fish, and sea turtles. Several large ships saw him but refused to help him. He eventually drifted to land.

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E1vBX TIL In the 1690s, the Scottish tried to start a colony in Panama, but the Spanish and English wiped them out.
8eEvL TIL a hiker did not know they were being searched for because they refused to answer a call from an unknown number
mxmM TIL Sugar Ray Robinson killed a man in the ring. The man he killed was saving up money to buy his mother a house. As a result, Robinson gave the earnings of his following four fights to that man’s mother.
XxgE TIL Saab in 1992 made a prototype vehicle dubbed “Prometheus” that had no steering wheel. Instead, to steer it, the driver had an aircraft like joystick. It greatly increased safety, space and aesthetics. The production model would have had two Joysticks, one for each arm / hand.
j58N TIL John Cleese of Monty Python has the unique distinction of having turned down both a life peerage (barony) and a CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire), saying he felt the honor was “silly.“