› added 5 years ago

569

TIL Nasa got the idea of a rocket countdown from a 1929 Fritz Lang Film.

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b9AD7 TIL that the last person to be executed at the Tower of London was a German man named Josef Jakobs in 1941. He was a spy who was caught after parachuting into England. He was shot by a military firing squad.
NjbP TIL a cat’s collar bone is not connected to any other bone in its body. The forelimbs are attached to the shoulder by free-floating clavicle bones, which allows them to pass their body through any space into which they can fit their heads,
NZ9M TIL that the original surveyors of Mount Everest lied and added 2 feet to its height to make it 29,002 feet, because they didn’t think people would believe them if they said it was really 29,000 feet high.
XEAWR TIL that, when Ronald Reagan vetoed the 1987 Civil Rights Restoration Act, Congress overrode the Presidential veto by 73-24 in the Senate and 292-133 in the House.
kOYxB TIL: In 2005 a company named SeaCode wanted to anchor a cruise ship three miles off the coast of Los Angeles, and fill it with up to 600 foreign programmers. The idea was to eliminate visa restrictions, and avoid U.S. labor laws.