› added 7 years ago

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TIL that the 21-gun salute stems from a tradition of old war ships firing all cannons harmlessly out to sea, until all ammunition was spent. Therefore showing they were disarmed and lacked hostile intent.

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d5VB TIL when building the Golden Gate Bridge, the lead structural engineer insisted on the installation of a safety net even though its $130,000 cost was deemed exorbitant. Over the four years of its construction, the net saved 19 men, who named themselves the “Halfway to Hell Club.”
mxveR Today I learned all Space Shuttle flights were outfitted with explosives that an Air Force officer would detonate if the Shuttle veered off course & endangered a populated area.
jNglQ Today i learned about the human excretory system. ES consist of a pair of kidneys, one pairs of ureters, a urinary bladder and a urethra. Kidneys are reddish brown bean shaped structure situated b/w the last thoracic & 3rd lumbar vertebra close 2 the dorsal inner wall of the abdominal cavity.
4kEkb TIL About the Edgewood Arsenal human experiment project conducted by the US Army chemical corps from 1948-1975 during which 7,000 soldiers were exposed to various nerve agents to test their results.
0w8GA TIL of Noor Inayat Khan, an Indian woman who was posthumously awarded the George Cross for her service during WWII. She was the first female wireless operator to be parachuted into France to assist the French resistance. Later betrayed by a a member of the resistance, she would be executed in Dachau