› added 9 months ago

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TIL the zipper scene from the 1998 film There’s Something About Mary was inspired by a real incident. According to Bobby Farrelly, when he was younger, his sister’s friend used the bathroom and “...zipped himself up. He was in there a long time. My dad had to go in and say, 'Hey, kid. You alright?'"

4WKg TIL A 66-year-old hiker, who became lost on the Appalachian Trail, kept a journal documenting her 26-day ordeal before succumbing to lack of food and exposure. In one entry, she pleaded “When you find my body, please call my husband and daughter.”
M6rV TIL the FDA prohibits products from being packed in containers deceptively larger than what they contain. (Potato chips are exempt because the extra air protects them from being crushed.)
grOGD TIL about the Schienenzeppelin, a train powered by a rear-mounted propeller similar to a helicopter, capable of reaching 140 km/h (87 mph). Designed in 1930s Germany, it was intended to be a futuristic mode of transportation but never entered service due to technical issues and WWII
16kpW TIL about Prototaxites: giant tree-like fungi that lived over 350 million years ago with heights reaching more than 20ft (6.5+m) tall.
4kNZX TIL of one of the worst maritime disasters in US history,the explosion and sinking of the steamboat Sultana. Designed to carry 376, 2500 civil war veterans crowded the decks, desperate to get home. It was completely overshadowed by the death of Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, a day earlier.