› added 9 years ago

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TIL the astronauts aboard Apollo 11 couldn’t afford the life insurance policy for an astronaut, so they hatched an alternate plan. Prior to their mission, the three signed hundreds of autographs while under quarantine for their families to sell if anything were to happen to them.

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via reddit.com

EKoW TIL that in 1991 a woman was kept “alive” although she was braindead because she was pregnant. The baby was born alive.
GYob1 TIL That Our Average Normal Temperature May No Longer Be 98.6 Degrees Fahrenheit
4XkrJ TIL that Irish avant-garde playwright Samuel Beckett used to drive a young Andre the Giant to school because he was too large for the bus
d8kDr TIL that there is an unusual instrument called the celeste/celesta which looks like a piano, but has metal plates like a xylophone, instead of strings, inside. This instrument is what gives the Nutcracker's Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies, and the Harry Potter theme, their distinct sound.
9vQX TIL as many as 800 languages are spoken in New York City, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world.