› added 7 years ago

124

TIL Mae Jemison, the first female African-American astronaut, was inspired to apply to NASA by the Star Trek character, Lieutenant Uhura. Jemison later went on to make a cameo appearance in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Read more wikipedia.org

via ift.tt

69al TIL Mark Wahlberg turned down a starring role in Brokeback Mountain because he was “a little creeped out” by the homosexual themes and sex scene.
BabD TIL An advertising campaign for Swedish fashion company “H&M” with posters of Anna Nicole Smith caused several car accidents in major European cities in 1994.
p8Pr4 TIL that Olympus Mons, the tallest known volcano in the solar system, has such a gradual slope that someone standing at the base couldn't see the summit because it's beyond the horizon.
yQlyl TIL that almost a thousand years before the modern environmental movement, William the Conqueror established the system of "Forest Law", which operated outside of the Common Law in effort to protect game animals and their forest habitat from destruction.
JYRxv TIL I learned of Derek Paraviccini, an autistic musical savant. Although born blind and barely able to care for himself, he plays piano with superhuman clarity and accuracy.