› added 11 years ago

74

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

Lk0WP TIL that the street in front of the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest was named in honor of Liviu Librescu, Romanian–American scientist and engineer. A prominent academic in addition to being a survivor of the Holocaust, he is renown for his heroism during the 2007 Virginia Tech Shooting.
E19LP TIL that New Mexico was not named after the nation of Mexico, but rather after the Aztec Valley of Mexico...in 1563, more than 250 years before Mexico became a nation.
78e0X TIL that Groundhog Day America was brought to America by German settlers. In the original tradition, a hedgehog was used to predict the weather but was switched to the groundhog which was much easier to come across in the Keystone State.
VGRG TIL that an allergy to Brazilian nuts is the only allergy that can be sexually transmitted through sperm [NSFW]
0wVGA TIL former Savage Garden vocalist Darren Hayes became an improv comic in 2013 after studying at The Groundlings Theatre.