› added 6 years ago

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TIL Teddy Roosevelt regularly staged boxing matches in the White House, taking on anyone he could - including professional boxers. He only stopped boxing when his eyesight was permanently damaged by a punch from his military aide, Col. Daniel T. Moore.

neo07 TIL that Ferdinand Porsche stole several design elements of Volkswagen Beetle from an Austrian engineer named Hans Ledwinka of Tatra, a Czech car company. Tatra took legal action, but Hitler invaded Austria, seized its factory, and banned the car. The case was settled by VW after the war.
gMdM8 TIL about elevator operator Betty Oliver, who survived a 75-story fall from the Empire State Building in 1945 when a B-25 crashed into it due to fog. 3 crewman and 11 people in the building died. Betty, who died in 1999, still holds the Guinness World Record for longest survived elevator fall.
V9oG Today I learned that there is a nuclear power plant in Arizona on 4000 ac.², it employs 2055 workers, generates 35% of all the electric energy in Arizona, and it is the only nuclear power plant in the world that is not built next to a body of water.
ADYbd TIL There are more than 500,000 pieces of debris floating or orbiting around Earth now. Most of them originated as parts of satellites and rockets.
LQYOm TIL that during WW2, the United States government made a video encouraging its farmers to grow hemp for the war effort. The hemp was used to make ropes for the U.S Navy. After the war ended, hemp reverted back to being illegal.