› added 6 years ago

197

TIL that Orville Wright, of The Wright Brothers fame, met Chuck Yeager in 1945 and was still alive when Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947

Read more historycollection.co

via reddit.com

Z86oD TIL: The most common type of vertigo is caused by crystals (that sense gravity) becoming dislodged from a gelatin area inside the inner ear.
9Yv0M TIL The Cadaver Synod was the posthumous trial of Pope Formosus. His corpse was dug up and found guilty, and his papacy voided. His corpse was then thrown in the River Tiber, but became a source of miracles. His trial was then overturned and he was reburied, but a later pope upheld the conviction.
D1rGJ TIL about Michele Mouton, a former French rally driver. After finishing runner-up in the 1982 WRC, she started competing in the infamous and savage Group B, which was later banned after a string of deaths. Mouton retired as a result, and she remains the last woman to compete in top-level rallying.
b9ZQ4 TIL There was a bank robber dressed as Santa Claus who was responsible for the death of 6 people during his robbery and getaway. When he was caught and thrown in jail, nearly 2,000 people showed up, pushed past the guards, dragged him out of the jail and hanged him.
neOP9 TIL that, in 2014, scientists found a giant 30,000 year old virus in Siberian permafrost. The virus, Pithovirus sibericum, was still infectious and began killing amoebas. This raised concerns that melting or drilling arctic ice could unearth previously undiscovered pathogenic viruses.