› added 8 years ago

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TIL, test pilot Tex Johnson did a barrel roll in a prototype 707 during a first look at a an air show with a lot of potential customers in attendance. When his boss called him into his office and said “What the hell were you doing?”, he replied “Selling Airplanes.”.

WvVN TIL there’s a 3D printer on the ISS and they’ve used it to ‘email’ tools into space (e.g. a socket wrench)
p81ZZ TIL that Every year during the summer and winter solstices, Luxor's Karnak Temple witnesses an astronomical event. The sun rises between the portals of the western gate of the temple and falls perfectly perpendicular, lighting up the sanctuary of AmunRaa at the centre of the temple.
p5oQ TIL a sailor who wishes to grow a beard in the Royal Navy has to submit a ‘permission to stop shaving’ form. He is then allowed two weeks to ‘grow a full set’ before he presents himself to the Master at Arms who will decide if his beard looks stupid or is respectably full enough to be permitted.
ky81 TIL of a book entitled Atlanta Nights that was written by a group of sci-fi authors to be intentionally terrible as a test for the publisher PublishAmerica. It included a chapter containing computer generated random sentences and two word for word identical chapters. The publisher accepted it.
rNXD4 TIL that the WWII submarine USS Tang sank two Japanese freighters in 1944 and was then sunk by one of her own torpedoes. Of the 78-man crew, nine survived and were rescued by the same Japanese frigate that had rescued sailors from the freighters the Tang had sunk the night before.