› added 1 year ago

146

TIL In January 2016, all of the planets from Mercury to Saturn were visible together in the predawn sky about 45 minutes before sunrise

D1NQp TIL Concorde flew so high passengers received twice the dose of radiation from flying in a conventional aircraft, which was believed to increase cancer risk. The flight deck contained a radiometer so they could descend in case of a solar storm.
GY0jN TIL X-Men movie director Bryan Singer banned Comic Books on set because he worried that bringing comics on set might get in the way of the "three-dimensional characters" he was trying to portray on screen.
78MmM TIL that the Japanese killed 250,000 Chinese civilians in response to the Doolittle Raid. Chinese people who aided the American airmen were tortured before they were killed. The Imperial Japanese Army had also spread cholera, typhoid, plague infected fleas and dysentery pathogens.
5V7G8 TIL in the 1970s hysteria over the arrival of killer bees in the United States created a genre of "killer bee movies". One of the most well-known movies was the 1978 film "The Swarm", directed by Irwin Allen and starring Michael Caine. It scored 9% at Rotten Tomatoes.
MK98 TIL in Sept 1940 the UK sent the US documents for improved radar, the jet engine, feasibility of an atomic bomb, rocket designs, plastic explosives & more; tech that would lead to victory, the nuclear age, jet age & said to be the “most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores”; in a single trunk.