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TIL In the Netherlands there is an entire neighbourhood with names out of the Tolkien stories

Read more maps.google.nl

via reddit.com

E1gnX TIL William Kamkwamba, after being forced to quit school at 14 due to poverty, taught himself to build windmills out of trash, using books from a local library, transformed his village with electricity and became an international celebrity. Receiving a scholarship to Dartmouth and graduating in 2014
wxnW TIL evidence shows that the space shuttle Challenger’s crew survived the explosion and could have been conscious until the crew cabin hit the ocean. 4 of 5 recovered crew air packs had been activated and pilot switches that could only have been moved manually by a person were moved.
ZKGQ TIL the Tempest Prognosticator was a device that kept 12 leeches inside small bottles. They attempted to climb out of the bottles when a storm was approaching, causing a bell to ring. The number of times the bell was struck indicated the likelihood of a storm.
W7ZWd TIL of The People's Olympiad, which was a planned alternate Olympics backed by the USSR and communist and socialist organizations, which were to be held to protest the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. It ultimately never happened because the Spanish Civil War started on the same day as the Opening Ceremony.
8egDa TIL Asians on average have wider feet than Europeans or Americans for the same foot length, based on an analysis of 1.2 million foot scans