› added 10 years ago

123

TIL of “The Mad Piper” Bill Millin, the only bagpiper to land on the beach in Normandy. While men fell around him, he played his pipes throughout the battle. A group of captured German snipers was asked why they hadn’t shot him. They replied that they thought he’d gone insane and felt bad for him.

9YM9Q TIL in 2001, on a flight to Kenya, the pilot passed out at the controls of his private plane, Rowan Atkinson took control of the Cessna 202 aircraft - saving the lives of his wife and two children. The pilot eventually came to, after several slaps by Atkinson, and managed to land the plane safely
LkwkQ TIL India has used 3 time zones in the past - Bombay, Madras and Calcutta, with Madras time zone (being in between the other two) used by the railways all around the country. Neither of them had the arbitrary UTC+X(.5) time offset. The present day IST is closest to the Madras time.
Bgglk TIL the head of the Swedish Uppsala Mafia (Uppsalamaffian) made off with over 200 million dollars with the release of a hand held gaming console called the Gizmondo that was immediately met with such harsh negative reception, it was deemed "one of the worst gaming consoles ever".
oB7GL TIL Lou Bega was born in Germany from an Italian mother and an Ugandan father and found inspiration from his song "Mambo n°5" while living in Miami where he discovered latin american music.
loK5V TIL that 40% of all Guinness is consumed in Africa, and Nigeria consumes more than Ireland.