› added 3 months ago

16

TIL that United Flight 175, the 2nd plane to crash into the WTC on 9/11, rapidly descended at an “unheard of” 5,000 ft/min during its final 5 minutes. Flying at 590 mph, the aircraft also banked sharply just before impact, as it might’ve otherwise just clipped the South Tower or missed it entirely.

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Wkp8 TIL that the term “Computer Bug” derived from Dr. Grace Hopper’s account of finding a moth stuck in the Harvard Mark II computer she was working on in 1945.
5VAbr TIL that after the Allies invaded North Africa in WW2, the Germans planned to use the powerful French navy to counterattack. The occupied French responded by scuttling their own fleet, destroying 77 ships and damaging many more. Ships burned for days, and the harbor was heavily polluted for years.
JYxB4 TIL of A&P supermarkets, the "Wal-Mart before Wal-Mart"; it dominated American retail from 1910-1950, before falling into a long decline following federal anti-trust lawsuits and later corporate mismanagement, and survived until 2015 as a minor regional supermarket chain
YpDPZ TIL that Native Americans continued to own Don Cheadle’s ancestors as slaves after the civil war.
e0PyJ TIL that the legal test used in the UK to determine whether something could cause sufficient public confusion to constitute an actionable trademark infringement is called the 'moron in a hurry' test.