› added 5 years ago

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TIL that upon Apollo 12 being struck twice by lightning, it was feared that the explosive bolts which deployed the parachutes were critically damaged. This was not disclosed to the astronauts on board as there was little to be done which could remedy the possible issue.

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WkpN9 TIL Hennig Brand, a German alchemist in the 1660s, was convinced he could distill gold from human urine. After amassing 1,500 gallons of urine and boiling it, he discovered the element phosphorus.
neAoG TIL that in 1403, at the Battle of Shrewsbury when future King Henry V of England was 16 he was shot in the face by an arrow. The royal physician, while using honey as an antiseptic, crafted a specially designed tool to successfully extract the embedded arrowhead without doing any further damage.
4W5a TIL 4 skateboarders in Calgary stepped in to save a woman being sexually assaulted. They scared off the assailant, then chased him down and held him until police arrested him.
oBrgW TIL during the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, Sacha Baron Cohen, who wore a jockstrap and wings as Bruno, crash-landed on Eminem's lap, buttocks aloft. Eminem, who left the ceremony in disgust, returned to his hotel room and laughed for 3 hours. He later revealed that it was mutually staged.
Ap67 TIL that the city of Bogotá, Columbia employed 420 mimes to poke fun at pedestrians and drivers who didn’t follow the rules. As a result, traffic fatalities dropped by more than half, from an average of around to 1300 to about 600.