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TIL Guion S. Bluford was a decorated Air Force pilot in Vietnam before joining NASA in the late 1970s.In 1983,he became the first African American to travel into space when he served as a mission specialist aboard the space shuttle Challenger.Before he retired he had logged 688 hours in space.

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p8xZG TIL of Eilmer of Malmesbury. An English monk who, in the 11th century, developed a glider and flew ~200m high. However, a gush of wind crashed him and left him crippled for the rest of his life. He wrote later in life that the reason for the crash was not developing a tail component to the glider.
1aMvO TIL Sega sold their own line of rear-projection TV’s in the 70’s. It was called the SEGA Vision and came in 3 different models with two size choices, 44 and 50 inch. While it never reached commercial success it did end up as a prize on an episode of The Price Is Right
6ldJ TIL that the average American receives an estimated 41 pounds of junk mail a year, destroying about 400 sq feet of natural habitat per person. Only about 32% is recovered for recycling.
ONYa TIL 1983 blockbuster WarGames (Matthew Broderick) caused President Reagan to ask national security officials if this type of “hacking” was possible; Gen. Vessey replied “The problem is much worse than you think.” This influenced national security policy, ARPAnet, & ultimately the modern Internet
Y97v TIL Bill Gates was the one who saved Apple Computer from bankruptcy, in 1997.