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TIL: In 1793, Diego Marín Aguilera flapped the wings of his man-powered glider, reached a height of about 5m and flew over 300m before crashing because of a broken metal joint. The inhabitants of the town believed him a lunatic, heretic, or a fraud, and burned his "demonic" flapping-wing creation.

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vOQx TIL that in 1961 at Jackass Flats, Nevada, the United States successfully tested a nuclear aircraft engine that would hug the terrain at mach 3. During its flight to the target, the proposed unmanned bomber would have deafened, flattened, and irradiated our allies. The project was cancelled in 1964.
4nno TIL Japanese Macaques have local accents, just like humans. They also season their food (in salt water) and roll snowballs for fun.
bZ9p TIL German actor Conrad Veidt (“Casablanca”, “Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”, and inspiration for The Joker) was so anti-Nazi that Hitler ordered him assassinated. He managed to escape Germany and make his way to Hollywood. Once there, he was quickly typecast as a Nazi.
Lra0 TIL JD Salinger never relinquished rights for audiobooks. The only legal way to obtain a Catcher in the Rye audiobook, is to have “permission” from a physician or ophthalmologist to listen to a “legal audiobook” recorded for the Library of Congress, who can do so by law, but only for the blind.
8nga TIL that the ‘Big Mac Index’ is an economic tool published annually by The Economist to measure the purchasing power parity between two currencies. It compares the cost of Big Macs world-wide to determine whether currencies are over-valued or under-valued.