› added 12 years ago

96

TIL That in January of 1982 a plane struck the 14th street bridge in DC. Among the many heroes that day, Lenny Skutnik dove into the icy water to save a survivor, swam 30 feet to get her and carried her to the shore. Both survived

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

gr0aW TIL that the longest scientific name of any living or fossil organism is Myxococcus llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochensis, a bacterium isolated from soil collected at Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, one of the longest place names in the world.
NX4dP TIL that the song “Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys is actually about their sound engineer, Mario Caldato Jr. He pissed them off and screamed that they needed to finish a song. He would push awful instrumental tracks having Adrock to yell “I can’t stand it!”
wLmDY TIL that in Newfoundland there is a town called Dildo. Population around 1200. Points of interest include Dildo Cove, Dildo Island & Spread Eagle Bay.
P1KeZ TIL Debra Houston set the record for world's oldest soap box derby racer at 59 when she competed at the Soap Box Derby National Championships. At first she just wanted to sign up her grandkids to a racing league to get them out of the house but was urged to race due to her small height and weight.
ZvLv TIL Shakespeare’s plays were so popular that pirated copies were made. Reporters would attend a performance and quickly write down the play’s entire text in shorthand as it was spoken. The pirated copies often had errors due to the reporters making mistakes while writing.