› added 1 year ago

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TIL that the annual New Year’s Polar Bear Swim started in Vancouver, Canada in 1920

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via reddit.com

QN8yL TIL in 1761 after a shipwreck, 60 slaves were abandoned on an island with the promise of being rescued. They were later forgotten. 15 years later they managed to rescue the remaining survivors: 7 women and an 8 month old baby. They managed to keep a fire burning for 15 years.
N7bM8 TIL between 1956 and 1972 Goodyear worked on an inflatable rescue plane for the US military. Despite being fully airworthy, the project was abandoned when the military didn't order such planes.
yQOa8 TIL that Jeff "Skunk" Baxter Guitarist for Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers is a ballistic missile expert that contracts with the DoD.
awgbN TIL of James Martin Stagg, a meteorologist for the allies in WW2 tasked with finding the day with the right conditions for the D-Day invasion. His team and him predicted that the weather would clear up on June 6th, which the Germans didn’t predict. He was right and D-Day was successful.
4Xlpg TIL musician Jim Croce and others died apparently due to a lazy pilot. An investigation showed the plane crashed after clipping a tree at the end of the runway. The pilot had not gained sufficient altitude to clear the tree and had not tried to avoid it, even though it was the only tree in the area.