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TIL due to the failure of the Boeing 2707, a Concorde competitor, and a downturn in general aviation in the 1970s, Boeing fired 60,000 employees. So many people left Seattle that a billboard was placed near the airport that read "Will the last person leaving Seattle turn out the lights?"

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kJ9eW TIL the story of Manneken Pis, the peeing boy statue of Belgium. It has quite a history dating back to the 1400s, from a 2-year-old lord defying enemy soldiers to a young boy peeing on a castle fire. There are other states similar, including a little girl peeing and a dog peeing.
R7OOw TIL that despite being strongly associated with NASA and astronauts, freeze-dried ice cream was never taken on board any missions to space.
rmgM TIL The oldest parachute design appears in an anonymous manuscript from 1470s Renaissance Italy (over 400 years before the airplane), showing a free-hanging man clutching a cross bar frame attached to a conical canopy. As a safety measure, four straps run from the ends of the rods to a waist belt.
xga0 TIL of the HNLMS Abraham Crijnnsen, a dutch warship that evaded the Japanese during world war 2 by planting trees all around the ship and sailing close to islands. So the Japanese wouldn’t think it was an enemy ship but part of an island. The ship was the only one of the fleet to return.
e0nZk TIL that Phillip J. Fry wasn't named in honor of Phil Hartman after all like Billy West once said, but after Matt Groening's father, Homer Phillip Groening. One in his children is also called Phillip.