› added 8 years ago

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TIL that On October 23, 1999, BASE jumper and stuntwoman Jan Davis died while making an illegal protest jump from El Capitan intended to demonstrate the safety of BASE jumping at Yosemite National Park, after a ban on BASE jumping in the area regarding safety.

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6eJ8 TIL there exists a sword, a jewel, and a mirror that are all over 1,000 years old and extremely sacred to Japan. They are so important that their locations are theorized but unconfirmed and their last sighting was in 1993 during Emperor Akihito’s enthronement but were also covered in packages.
kJ4Xe TIL that in 1957 the US launched Project Pluto, a plan to design and build a "doomsday" cruise missile (SLAM) that would be nuclear powered and carry multiple hydrogen bombs, spreading radiation along its path from the engine. It was loud enough to kill people in its path with sound.
v1MyB TIL there is a toxic lake in Butte- MT, which was an old mining site now filled with toxic waters. Scientists have found use of this lake in researching about microbes which thrive in these extreme conditions, helping our fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria and diseases like cancer
4X55a TIL a miner in the California desert spent 40 years digging a half-mile tunnel alone, by hand. Twenty years into the project, the state completed a road that eliminated the need for the tunnel, but the miner spent another two decades finishing it.
PYGWL TIL that the ancient Chinese emperor, Zhu Houzhao, had a fake shopping market built outside his palace so he could pretend to shop like the commoners did. It was staffed by his servants who he made dress up like merchants and commoners.