› added 6 years ago

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TIL the Gemini 3 was named Molly Brown in the hope that it wouldn't sink at splashdown. NASA didn't like this and asked astronaut Gus Grissom to change the name, to which he replied "how about the Titanic?". NASA relented, but this was the last time astronauts were allowed to name their capsule.

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ovLK TIL, that in 2005, documentary film makers gave a homeless person $100,000 in cash, and followed him to see what he would do with the money. 6 months later, he was completely broke and back in the same place he was before the windfall.
9r16 TIL A tattoo depicting a liquor store slaying, found on a gang member’s chest, led to his conviction after an officer recognized the crime scene.
Y9wx TIL for Alien (1979) a semiotic standard - a collection of icons - was created to make the Nostromo more realistic
1aZOd TIL: Killer Whales live in highly social matrilineal family groups that are the most stable out of any species. Their hunting techniques and vocal behaviors are passed down generationally in an example of animal culture.
awvoJ TIL the President's desk in the Oval Office of the White House was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880, & was carved from the HMS Resolute, a 19th century British Royal Navy ship that an American whaler recovered from the Arctic