› added 10 years ago

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TIL that after seeing Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, the astronauts of Apollo 8, the first manned mission to leave Earth’s orbit, were tempted to radio back reporting the appearance of a black monolith.

Read more solarsystem.nasa.gov

via reddit.com

XEAj8 TIL the first computer of any description to sell one million units, the VIC-20, was put together by a team of 5 people at Commodore, who used to stay back late and steal equipment to do the development work because no one else in the company would cooperate with them.
9A0D TIL a simple illusion can detect if you have schizophrenia
60pJ TIL after Michael Jordan scored a game-high 69 points, teammate Stacey King quipped “I’ll always remember this as the night that Michael Jordan and I combined to score 70 points”
QJyx6 TIL the dodo bird was not unintelligent but simply evolved docile behavior in response to a lack of predator on its native island of Mauritius. Humans took advantage of this behavior, haunted it to extinction, and then made it a universally recognized symbol of unintelligence.
8BQa TIL the Roman Empire once had four emperors in a single year.