› added 4 years ago

132

TIL In 1967 Michael J. Adams (Maj USAF) flew an X-15 to an altitude above 50 miles and qualified as an astronaut according to the U.S. definition of the boundary of space. Moments later the craft broke apart, killing Adams and destroying the X-15-3. He was the first American space mission fatality.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

4VYN TIL paper cuts hurt so bad because paper does more microscopic damage to the skin, and there often isn’t blood to protect nerves afterwards.
e0Yob TIL that support ships called 'Destroyer tenders' were common in navies in the first half of the 20th century; one Destroyer tender would travel with multiple destroyer ships, carrying supplies for them, thus extending their collective range on the open ocean
ZajR TIL that a man named James Harrison who is also known as the man with golden arm has donated blood more than 1000 times which has saved more than 2 million unborn babies from Rehsus disease.
wLYNP TIL after he ‘killed’ Sherlock in The Final Problem (1893), readers got upset and relentlessly pressured Conan Doyle to resurrect the character. In 1901 Doyle released The Hound of the Baskervilles in a bid to pacify, and finally in 1903 he resurrected Holmes in the The Adventure of the Empty House.
JYeWV TIL Invented around 1770, the basset horn was pitched a fourth lower than the traditional clarinet (F) and is described to have a rich tone. Mozart liked its sound so much that wrote multiples pieces specifically for his clarinetist friend. As the orchestra started to grow, it fell into obscurity