› added 5 years ago

63

TIL the man who inspired the 2004 Tom Hanks movie 'The Terminal' spent 18 years living at the departure lounge of Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

5VKBQ TIL in 1943, a U.S. bomber took 11 direct hits to its fuel tanks—but none exploded. The bombs were empty, and one carried a Czech note saying, 'This is all we can do for you now.'"
X04lj TIL that the first car to achieve a land speed record of 62mph, (100kph), was a Belgian designed electric vehicle in 1899.
0wLGp TIL that in Poznan, Poland, eight clams get to decide if people in the city get water or not. They’re equipped with sensors atop them that trip the water supply pumps when they close due to detecting something unsafe in the water.
a8n4L TIL in 1983, a soviet military officer “saved the world” from a full-blown nuclear war by disobeying orders, after receiving a false alarm of missiles fired by the USA
e0o4b TIL that Florida had brought in 2 Irula tribesmen from India to catch the invasive Burmese pythons. When 1000 hunters were able to manage catching just 106 snakes, the duo caught 27 snakes in just 4 weeks, including a 16 ft long female.