› added 3 years ago

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TIL I learned test pilot Alvin “Tex” Johnston did a barrel roll of a prototype Boeing 707 - unauthorized - in front of a crowd of 250,000 people at the 1955 Sea Fair hydroplane races. He flew the plane upside down, and then did a final barrel roll. He was not fired the next day, but it was close.

4kVx6 TIL about Charles Howard, 20th Earl of Suffolk. He was responsible for rescuing a team of French nuclear scientists and the entire world stockpile of heavy water from France during WW2. He also served as part of an unexploded bomb detachment, successfully tackling 34 unexploded bombs
vP4xr TIL that the Leaning Tower of Pisa was built in 3 stages over centuries but that it had begun leaning from the start, so they simply built each new stage straight up on top of the tilted lower portions; as a result, the 3 sections are leaning at different angles.
0r0R TIL that the Taung Child - the first Australopithecus fossil ever discovered - was originally killed by a bird of prey after having its eyes gouged out ~2.8 million years ago
pZXA TIL that the Go-Go’s were the first, and to date only, all-female band that wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to have an album reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart with their 1981 debut album “Beauty and a Beat”
LXBd TIL Sweden will import 800,000 tonnes of trash each year to satisfy its waste-to-energy plants – waste conscious Swedes have been recycling so efficiently, the country doesn’t have enough of its own trash to burn.