› added 8 months ago

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TIL that several crew members onboard the Challenger space shuttle survived the initial breakup. It is theorized that some were conscious until they hit the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.

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4X505 TIL It was as recent as December 2020 that the last widow of a US Civil War soldier (fought 1861-1865) passed away.
mBEE TIL that in 1958, United States Air Force lost a 7,600-pound (3,400 kg) Mark 15 nuclear bomb in the waters off Tybee Island near Savannah, Georgia, United States. It has never been recovered.
P10jL TIL that Martha’s Vineyard is one of only 5 natural place names that the U.S. Board on Geographic Names has allowed to include an apostrophe.
jNmeR TIL The Maya civilization used chocolate as money and the disruption of the cacao supply which fueled political power may have led to an economic breakdown, causing the collapse of the empire.
x68yD TIL in the 2000s, Laura Albert passed herself as JT LeRoy, a former juvenile prostitute heroin-user with AIDS, writing books as him and hiring her boyfriend's step-sister to impersonate him