› added 2 months ago

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TIL that a school principal once made a student who'd gotten into trouble sit in the basement & read the U.S. Constitution as punishment. That student (who committed the Constitution to memory as a result) was Thurgood Marshall, who went on to become the first Black Supreme Court justice

Read more uscourts.gov

via reddit.com

Y7GpZ TIL about Helios Flight 522. An engineer failed to set the pressurization system back to auto from manual, causing most (except 2 flight attendants) to lose consciousness. The auto-pilot reached Greece and stayed in a holding pattern until they ran out of fuel and crashed, killing all 121 onboard.
pYn0O TIL that in 2006, footballer Ashley Cole sued 2 tabloids for alleging he participated in a homosexual orgy, and was criticized by a former teammate for publishing an autobiography when he was only 25 years old.
8aRma TIL that the anchor of the ship that caused the Halifax Explosion wound up 3.2 kilometers away from the site. The anchor weighed half a ton.
0WLj TIL Hawaiian singer, Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwoʻole, famous for his cover of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”, was a supporter of Hawaiian rights. He used the ukulele to promote awareness of the second class status. After his death, his ashes were publicly scattered into the Pacific on July 12, 1997.
d8AME TIL the Dalai Lama is almost a vegetarian. He alternates. While he advocates vegetarianism, if he is in the company of meat-eaters, he is happy to eat meat. The White House once offered him a vegetarian menu and he declined.