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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.

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.