› added 9 years ago

196

TIL that on 9/11 four people in the South Tower of the World Trade Center managed to escape from a floor above the plane’s impact.

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x5wk TIL that in 1993 Pepsi ran a contest in the Philippines in which it promised 1 million pesos, roughly $40,000, to the person who found the number 349 inside his bottle cap. Pepsi went on to mistakenly print 800,000 winning caps, leading to outrage and death threats to Pepsi executives.
16KlX TIL that it is possible to reach negative Kelvin in advanced physics: a system's temperature is above 0K if adding energy increases its entropy (disorder of the particles). However, once the entropy is maximum, adding more energy makes it decrease, meaning the system's temperature drops below 0K.
R7jL6 TIL about Albert Pierrepoint, an English hangman who executed between 435 and 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956. During his tenure he hanged over 200 people convicted of war crimes in Germany and Austria, as well as some high-profile murderers.
YpGvW TIL That the Pillars of Creation were probably destroyed 6000 years ago. This was discovered after new photo from Spitzer Space Telescope showed dustclouds from a supernova shockwave that happened 6000 years ago.
Y7nyr TIL that Wan Hu, a 16th-century Chinese official, is said to have attempted to launch himself into outer space in a chair to which 47 rockets were attached. The rockets exploded, and it is said that neither he nor the chair were ever seen again.