› added 12 years ago

102

TIL that America founded the Iranian Nuclear program.

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p8rw4 TIL that the tongue twister “She sells seashells by the seashore” is based on the life of Mary Anning. Mary and her brother learned to find, identify and sell fossils in an effort to support their family after their father died.
Y7kYr TIL The UK has a savings account that is also a lottery. Instead of receiving interest, you are in with a chance to win up to £1M every month. You can withdraw all your money at any time. Other countries have tried it but their official lottery got them banned because of their own greed.
4kd9a TIL about the Paria diving tragedy, where five divers were sucked into an underwater oil pipeline. Only one of the men made it out alive, but no rescue attempts were made to save the other four divers who were still alive. They tragically died inside the pipe.
R5xNl TIL about the North American X-15, a hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft which holds the world record for highest speed ever recorded by a crewed, powered aircraft. The X-15 reached that speed on 3 October 1967, when test pilot William J. Knight flew at Mach 6.7 (4,520 mph; 7,274 km/h).
5YBRR TIL that the infamous RMS Titanic had a near-identical sister ship called Olympic, nicknamed "Old Reliable", that was re-commissioned in WWI as a troop transport ship and was notable for having carried over 200,000 troops during the war and sinking a German u-boat by ramming into it head-on