› added 4 years ago

141

TIL of SR-71 Blackbird test pilot Bill Weaver, who survived a free fall from space after his plane disintegrated around him doing Mach 3.2

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ANWXg TIL: Engineers make perfect steel spheres by filling it with water and then detonating a bomb inside it.
DWag TIL Victorian London had many reports of “Spring-heeled Jack” - a monster with claws & a cape who could spit fire & jump >9 ft in the air - accosting & frightening women into seizures & catatonic states. A group of soldiers encountered him & opened fire; he slapped one in the face & jumped away
d8ybK TIL that the continent of Antarctica was discovered so recently in human history that the first undisputed landing of humans on Antarctica did not occur until 24 January, 1895.
dDedK TIL The world's earliest known fossilised forest is in Minehead, UK. Recently discovered, it is four million years older than the previous record holder (New York State)
oBQBY TIL in 1996, NASA established the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics program in order to research propulsion that requires no propellant mass. Topics of interest include experiments and theories regarding gravity and electromagnetism, vacuum energy, warp drives and worm-holes and quantum effects.