› added 8 years ago

171

TIL that in WW2, a Marine Corps Corsair pilot ground off an enemy reconnaissance plane’s tail with his propeller after his guns jammed, while under fire from the enemy plane’s tailgunner. The enemy plane crashed and he made it back to base, receiving the Navy Cross for his actions that day.

Read more valor.militarytimes.com

via ift.tt

8pgV TIL that the creator of Peter Pan gave the rights to a children’s hospital so they would always collect the royalties and fund the hospital!
MJkB TIL: in 1914 Daniel Hess refused to sell the last bit of his property to the city of New York after the rest his property had been seized via eminent domain, and today it remains on the sidewalk with a tile that reads “Property of the Hess Estate Which Has Never Been Dedicated For Public Purposes”
v17VB TIL Tu Youyou discovered artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin, used to treat malaria, a breakthrough in twentieth-century tropical medicine, saving millions of lives. She is described as “almost completely forgotten by people”.
EvdW TIL the USSR had a televised song contest. Since few people had phones, viewers would turn their house lights ON if they liked a certain song (OFF if they didn’t). The state energy co. recorded the size of each power spike & reported the results to the station to determine points for each contestant
EbDo TIL The Malaysian pen-tailed tree shrew subsists on a diet roughly equivalent to 100% beer, drinking the fermented nectar of the flower buds of the bertam plant. This nectar can reach up to 3.8% alcohol content. Despite this, they don’t appear to get drunk.