› added 4 years ago

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TIL that Disney World once had its own airport with a runway that sang. It had grooves in the tarmac that were spaced such that when a plane reached 45 mph, it played Pinocchio's 'When You Wish Upon A Star".

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v5bD TIL that a guide dog calmly led 30 people down 1,463 steps out of the World Trade Center on 9/11 despite the confusion, smoke, and noise around them. Once safe, the dog then helped a woman who was blinded by the debris.
KOQba TIL Peter Benchley regretted writing JAWS. Later in life, he became an ocean activist and wrote books advocating shark conservation.
PYB1G TIL That the continent of Antarctica was originally going to be called Australia, until the colonial authorities in Sydney took the name for their continent. After that Antarctica had no official name for over 80 years until the 1890s. It was just referred to as the Antarctic Continent.
j9xN TIL Professor Geoff Raisman spent 60 years of his life trying to find a cure for paralysis. He was fired twice but 9 months ago he helped paralysed Darek Fidyka walk again and believes his team’s work, and this breakthrough, will help many paralyzed people walk again in the near future.
dYO7 TIL That a British PoW captured by the Germans in World War I was freed to see his dying mother - but went back to the prison camp after giving the Kaiser ‘his word’ he would return.