› added 6 years ago

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TIL The ancient Greeks had known the world is round since Pythagoras, and successfully calculated the circumference of the globe when Eratosthenes measued the angles of the mid-day sun between two towns of a known distance. His calculation had only about a 10% margin of error.

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9YXAr TIL that in 2012, an Indian nurse looking after the Duchess of Cambridge was prank called by an Australian radio station pretending to be the Queen. This led to her revealing confidential information which was then broadcast on the radio. 3 days later, she committed suicide by hanging.
DQQP TIL that due to the high ratio of atmospheric density to surface gravity on Saturn’s moon Titan, humans could fly by simply strapping on a pair of wings.
LkrAZ TIL that Creed Bratton who played a fictionalized version of himself on 'The Office' was born as William Charles Schneider. In his early years he decided to try life as a traveling musician and made his way on a global excursion, during which he changed his name
9YMQM TIL: When former slave Jordan Anderson was asked to come back and work for his old master, he replied with a deadpan letter asking for 52 years' back pay as proof of good faith. The letter has been described as a rare example of documented "slave humor" of the period.
6EpJ7 TIL that in 2014 Korean Air vice president Heather Cho was so angry about receiving macadamia nuts in a bag instead of on a plate, she forced the plane to taxi back to gate and unload the offending flight attendant. "Nutgate" ended up costing her 5 months in jail