› added 9 years ago

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TIL of a community of ex-slaves that spoke their native language and carried on their tribal customs and traditions into the 1950s in Alabama.

7rmxp TIL The Battle of Leyte Gulf was, by some criteria, the largest naval battle in history, with over 200,000 naval personnel involved. The Japanese lost 1 fleet carrier, 3 light carriers, 3 battleships, 6 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers, 11 destroyers, 300 aircraft, & 12,500 killed
4Dk5 TIL that in 1948, before the NBA had any black players, the Harlem Globetrotters beat the NBA Champion Lakers in a straight up game.
xp11 TIL that the SR-71 was able to maintain its heading within 1,000 feet at Mach 3 by using a navigation system that tracked a series of 61 stars using a sensor capable of detecting them in broad daylight.
PYbPV TIL "Japan was changed forever by the devastating triple tragedy that unfolded on March 11, 2011, bringing an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis." "The total cost of the catastrophe has been put at $286 billion by the World Bank, making it the most expensive disaster of all time."
1aJkW Have you ever played with a pocket-sized laser, wondering how far its light would travel? Could you, a naughty student inside a classroom on Earth, annoy a poor substitute teacher on Mars by waggling your laser pointer at him? T​he short answer: no. By the time the light finally reached Mars, the glint would be a million times dimmer than the faintest light visible to the human eye.