› added 6 years ago

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TIL 21 years ago Twenty people died when a United States Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler aircraft, while flying too low, against regulations, in order for the pilots to "have fun" and "take videos of the scenery", cut a cable supporting a gondola of an aerial tramway. The pilots faced no consequences.

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P1kBG TIL: The Trapped 13: How We Survived The Thai Cave is a testament to courage and humanity’s power to unite in the face of impossible odds. Their story reminds us that even in the darkest moments, hope and compassion can shine through.
R7Xv6 TIL about John Atanasoff, who built the first digital computer, but got very little credit because his employer, Iowa State College, never filed the patent application
M71AV TIL that the first clear aerial image of a city was taken on October 13, 1860 by James Wallace Black. It was shot from a hot-air balloon at 1,200 feet and was called 'Boston, as the Eagle and the Wild Goose See It'.
Z8X8G TIL about Scheele’s Green, a popular pigment in the 1800s made with deadly arsenic. One famous death was of a flowermaker, who dusted the pigment onto fake foliage. “She vomited green waters; the whites of her eyes had turned green, and she told her doctor that ‘everything she looked at was green.’”
YeXP TIL In 2011, a man shot a high powered rifle at the White House, hitting it at least 7 times. It took Secret Service 4 days to realize this, and they did so only after a housekeeper noticed broken glass and cement on the floor.