› added 11 years ago

100

TIL that in 1959 a pilot ejected from his plane directly into a violent thunder cloud. The storm winds kept him aloft for 40 minutes, pelting him with hailstones and so much rain that at times he had to hold his breath to keep from drowning in mid-air.

Read more weatherimagery.com

via reddit.com

rRGEd TIL that the Dutch East India Company was the first company to ever go public on a stock exchange, raising enough capital to become a multinational conglomerate with over 70,000 employees. At it's peak, the company was worth 78 million Dutch guilders - equivalent to $7.4 trillion today.
awbEZ TIL that Japan does not have as many forest fires as the US although Japan is largely covered with vast forests and has really hot summers.
69QgW TIL : In 1986 a Russian commercial pilot made a bet with the first officer that he could land blind with curtains over the cockpit windows. He lost the bet, crashing and killing 70 people.
jZYM TIL that there is a malicious zip file on the internet that is only 42 kilobytes when compressed, but 4.5 petabytes when unzipped (that’s 4500 terabytes or 4,500,000 gigabytes!)
E1gRd TIL Despite New York City's expensive cost of living, you can still buy 0.99¢ pizza at over a dozen places.