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TIL that in 1961 an aircraft crash nearly set off a nuclear detonation 250x the size of Hiroshima in North Carolina. The only thing that prevented it from going off was a simple low voltage safety switch.

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6DoJ TIL One of the test pilots for the interceptor version of the SR-71 was chosen for Apollo 15 mission to the Moon. He had a heart attack after his moon walk and the only reason anybody knew was because NASA noticed it on his heart monitor. It was left out of the mission debriefing records.
6E7JW TIL that many Confederate soldiers immigrated to Brazil after the American Civil War, establishing a community of "Confederados" that still exists today, five generations later.
nW49 TIL that the “Gish Gallop” is the debating technique of drowning the opponent in such a torrent of half-truths, lies, and straw-man arguments that the opponent cannot possibly answer every falsehood in real time.
p8RJG TIL that Four out of five members of Congress continued to drink alcohol during Prohibition
7809x TIL that, during the African humid period (late Pleistocene to early Holocene), Sahara was an open grass savannah with shrubs and trees, lakes and rivers, populated with crocodiles, frogs and baboons