› added 8 months ago

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TIL Yuri Gagarin was chosen for the first spaceflight instead of Gherman Titov because the first Soviet flight was to be one orbit and ~110 minutes, and the second flight 17.5 orbits and 25 hours. Someone with a stronger body was needed for the longer flight, thus the "weaker" Gagarin was chosen.

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QNgbe TIL on July 14, 1776, Daniel Boone’s 14-year old daughter Jemima and two other teen girls were kidnapped by a Cherokee-Shawnee raiding party. As the girls were being taken they tore off bits of their clothing to provide a trail. They were found 3 days later and safely returned.
YpeOP TIL that Lego bricks helped solve a twenty-three year old cold case murder in 2014. The murderer allowed his child to play with the bricks in another room while murdering his victim, and fingerprints on a brick that was left behind allowed the police to connect the dots to the killer.
wLk9M TIL that although GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) is free for the world to use, it costs the American taxpayer $2 million per day to operate.
mjRo TIL to avoid boredom while in a POW camp during the Korean War, Lt. John Thornton would ride an imaginary motorcycle around. He did this every day until the guards called him to their headquarters and took away his imaginary motorcycle stating that it was against rules and regulations.
W7gQ9 TIL President Calvin Coolidge had a pet racoon named Rebecca who was originally gifted to him to eat for Thanksgiving dinner