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TIL In 1819, Hot Air Balloonist Madame Blanchard performed an exhibition flight over Paris in which she set off fireworks from her balloon. One firework ignited the balloon’s gas, causing it to crash, killing Blanchard.

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e0ye6 TIL Marshall Mabey was a $1 a day NYC tunnel worker called "Sandmen". On Feb 19 he was working under the East River where the tunnel was pressurized to prevent cave ins. A crack in the ceiling vented Mabey up through the mud, the East River and 25 feet into the air. He lived and was uninjured.
Dn6P TIL More than 20M people are living in slavery today, more than at any time in history and Walk Free is an organization aiming to help end it this generation by conducting researches and creating awareness with social media.
l7NdG TIL that Smedley Butler is the last person to have been awarded the Medal of Honor twice
N7nJJ TIL that the phrase 'Until the Bitter End' comes from the frame that a ships anchor was connected to (the bitts), so the 'bitter end' was the last bit of rope that attached it to the ship. This was designed to break and release the anchor if it was in free fall to stop it ripping out the ships deck.
KLQ4 TIL Sir Francis Bacon, known for his phrase that “knowledge is power”, wrote the first book on the growing of terrestrial plants in a soilless environment. That practice would later become known as Hydroponics.