› added 12 years ago

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TIL that Luxembourg’s education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German, while in secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French.

gGb TIL In 1897, three men tried to reach the North Pole in a hydrogen-filled balloon. The balloon crashed two days after lift-off and the men spent the next 3 months trying to walk back to civilization…only to be eaten by polar bears.
neR9B TIL: In the 1990s, two Boeing 737s (one in 1991 near Colorado Springs, the other in 1994 near Pittsburgh) crashed due to a design flaw that let the rudder move on its own without warning, which killed 157 in total. In 1996, a third aircraft experienced the same issue but landed safely in Richmond.
YpDVP TIL that on 9/11/2001, North East Air Defense Sector commanding officer Kevin Nasypany remarked "The hijack's not supposed to be for another hour" because they had scheduled a simulation involving politically motivated asylum-seekers hijacking a plane & landing it on a Cuba-like island
ANmZw TIL Anthony Bourdain called “Ratatouille” “simply the best food movie ever made.” This was due to details like the burns on cooks’ arms, accurate to working in restaurants. He said they got it “right” and understood movie making. He got a Thank You credit in the film for notes he provided early on.
wK57 TIL Queen frontman Freddie Mercury had an overbite which he refused to surgically correct out of fear it would affect his singing voice.