› added 9 years ago

106

TIL Alan Shepherd, first American in space, told reporters his final thought before takeoff was “the fact that every part of the ship was built by the lowest bidder”

Read more m.wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

9wQdG TIL that East Germany is believed to have made around 3.5B DM off West Germany by ransoming political prisoners
v1QwB TIL that the Eiffel Tower grows in summer. When it gets hot, the iron expands due to the heat and shrinks again in the winter. It grows by 6 inches each summer.
e014g TIL the letters on hillsides were started by rivalries between High Schools and Universities as a way to mark their territory. The first three ‘mountain monograms’ were erected at Lahainaluna High, UC Berkeley, and BYU. They spread like wildfire in the Western US in the 20s and 30s.
D1V4v TIL of the Isdal Woman, who was found dead in Isdalen, Norway 1970. An autopsy revealed she had been poisoned with phenobarbital and carbon monoxide. Her death remains a mystery
5por TIL of Alexandra Scott who started a lemonade stand to raise money for children with cancer. Before passing away at the age 8 she successfully raised over $1 million towards cancer research. Her foundation sponsors a national fundraising weekend every June called Lemonade Days.