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TIL that in 1988 Space Shuttle Atlantis' heat tiles were damaged during liftoff (In a way very similar to the Columbia disaster) and the crew believed that upon re-entry they were going to die.

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Bawb TIL the term bucket list is derived from the phrase kicking the bucket which is derived from the kicking of the bucket from under your feet as you hang yourself.
bAZN TIL : In the 1821 Greek War of Independence, the Ottoman Turks ran out of bullets and started to strip the columns of the Parthenon for lead. When the Greeks got wind of this, they gathered up their bullets and sent them to the Turks to use against themselves to protect their ancient heritage.
aw8o0 TIL Scaled Composites wanted to register their SpaceShipOne spaceplane with the FAA as N100KM, as a reference to the Kármán line, the boundary between the atmosphere and space, but as it was taken, they settled for N328KF, or 328 kilofeet, the imperial conversion of 100km.
DNWJ TIL During WWI, Dominic “Fats” McCarthy was awarded the Victoria Cross after he, virtually unaided, killed 22 Germans, captured 5 machine guns, 50 prisoners, and half a kilometer of the German front. When it was over even the prisoners he’d captured patted him on the back for what he’d done.
LkNKr TIL that there are as many as 800 languages spoken in New York City, making it the most linguistically diverse city on the planet, and nowhere in the world has more than Queens, according to the Endangered Language Alliance (ELA).