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TIL an MIT grad student submitted his thesis developing the theory of orbital rendezvous which would be critical to the Apollo program. It opens, “In the hopes that this work may in some way contribute to their exploration of space. If only I could join them in their exciting endeavors.” Buzz Aldrin

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p8gWG TIL in 1959 Cornell physicists had speculated that any extraterrestrial civilization attempting to communicate via radio signals might do so using a frequency of 1420 mHz which is naturally emitted by hydrogen. 18 years later that exact transmission was read in Ohio, nicknamed the "Wow! signal".
7RvP TIL Tsar Bomba, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated, was so powerful that it created seismic shocks that were measurable even on their third passage around the Earth.
gMWZ4 TIl that in 2012, a german radio DJ locked himself in the studio and played Wham‘s Last Christmas 14 consecutive times before his coworkers managed to break down the door.
xVvQo TIL that Freddie Mercury of Queen held a party in New Orleans in 1978, which featured nude waiters and waitresses, a man biting heads off live chickens, naked models wrestling in a liver pit, and dwarves walking around with trays of cocaine strapped to their heads.
v1eGL TIL that Richard Sandrak AKA "Little Hercules" was a boy who was able to bench press 180lbs (82 kg) by the age of six. He was given a strict diet and workout regime for the first decade of his life. He's said to have never eaten any candy before his controlling and abusive father was sent to jail.