› added 4 years ago

145

TIL Joseph Strauss, the engineer of the golden Gate Bridge, mandated that a net be installed under the bridge for safety while being built. This was revolutionary at the time. The net caught 19 men who fell, saving all of them from a certain death.

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XLKj TIL that the term “devil’s advocate” was originally the church official appointed to argue against a candidate for sainthood
ONe TIL after winning 4 gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, African-American track star Jesse Owens was not invited to the White House or recognized in any way by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Instead, it was Adolf Hitler who gave Owens a special commemorative gift.
OoEJR TIL of a Dutch sailor who stole a military aircraft and flew it to Libya to get out of the Dutch Navy.
N7QaN TIL Steven Spielberg's father, Arnold Spielberg, built a his own ham radio from scraps when he was 15, became an early computer pioneer in the 1950s and recently celebrated his 103rd birthday!
QJJQE TIL about Misha Osipov, the chessplayer who challenged Karpov when he was 3 years old and defeated the grandmaster Averbakh at age 4