› added 7 years ago

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TIL John F Kennedy once had a 2 year long affair with beauty queen and actress Inga Arvad, even coming very close to marrying her. The relationship ended when Joe Kennedy discovered Ms Arvad had another man in her life- the one and only Adolf Hitler- and was under FBI surveillance as a result.

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j660j TIL Whale oil was used as transmission fluid up until 1972. America used over 14 million kg of sperm whale oil lubricant per year. Sperm oil was also a valuable lubricant known for being non-corrosive for metals and withstanding both high and cold temperatures.
DYoY TIL Its not actually true that the US space program spent millions on developing a pen that worked in space, whereas the Russians just used a pencil. They both used pencils at first, but the shavings and chipped graphite floating around were harmful to the astronauts and computers
5YDYk TIL about We, a novel by Ayn Rand where collectivism has gone so far as to remove the word "I" from speech, accurately predicting YouTube comments on videos about communism
XEGeE TIL that Senator Jake Garn, who flew in the Space Shuttle in 1985, experienced the worst case of space sickness on record. Because of this, NASA jokingly uses a "Garn Scale" to measure reactions to space sickness, where "1.0 Garn" is the worst.
v1akx TIL of Sir Jack Brabham who finished the 1959 Formula One race on foot when his car ran out of fuel with 500 yards to go. He pushed the car the rest of the way to clinch the title.