› added 6 years ago

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TIL about the Chloe Cooley incident, in which a young black woman was seen being forced into a boat to be sold in 1793. This incident was observed by several witnesses, who then petitioned the Executive Council of Upper Canada, which eventually led to the passage of the Act Against Slavery, 1793.

69KRw TIL How fitting a square peg in a round hole saved the crew of Apollo 13. The lunar module didn’t have enough CO2 scrubbers to return to Earth and the command module’s scrubbers were square and didn’t fit in the lunar module’s round outlets. A filter was made with plastic bags, cardboard, and tape.
PYQwn TIL an alligator can go two years without feeding by burning fat reserves at the base of it's tail.
gMwdL TIL that after the Apollo 11 moonwalk, NASA was concerned about the volatility and possible fire or explosion of lunar dust after the LM was filled with oxygen. Armstrong and Aldwin spread out a sample in the LM before repressurizing and watched to see if it caught fire or smoldered. It did not.
wbrY TIL privately owned stores such as Walmart can’t force you to show a receipt before letting you leave the store. You can politely refuse to show your receipt and continue walking out the door.
6E5vJ TIL the lyric “they stab it with their steely knives” from “Hotel California” by the Eagles is a nod to Steely Dan for the free publicity they gave them when the Eagles were mentioned in a lyric from Steely Dan’s song “Everything You Did” which goes “turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening”.