› added 7 months ago

150

TIL that space has a distinct smell and in 2008, NASA hired a chemist to recreate that scent for training astronauts.

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7yZ7 TIL there is a Christian cult in China that tortures former members for leaving and killed a woman for refusing to join
5PYr TIL Louis Armstrong was 1 of the few people who could move between East and West Berlin without papers. “The East Germans had their guns out, looked at us and said ‘Louis Armstrong.’ They got his autograph and waved us on. On the US side; 'This is Satchmo!’ Every night we went back and forth.”
x6en7 TIL The Gjøa left from the port of Oslofjord in 1903 when Norway was still in a union with Sweden. Over the next three years she was the first to sail the Northwest Passage and returned home to an independent Norway. The crew became some of the nation's first heroes.
wZXY TIL in 1789, after he lost control of his ship in a mutiny and was forced onto a cramped boat, British officer William Bligh led 18 loyal sailors on a 47 day, 4164 mile voyage from Tonga to Indonesia. They had 4 swords, a week’s worth of food and water, and a compass. All but one, survived the trip.
Q7X6 TIL: In 1963, Alfred Heineken created a beer bottle that could also function as a brick to build houses in impoverished countries.