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Alan Shepard became the first American (suborbital) space traveller on May 5, 1961.

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GYeBE Today I learned about JIS-spec screws, which look an awful lot like Phillips-head screws, but the tools are not always interchangeable and can cause mechanics tremendous frustration.
dQXK TIL that the average carbon footprint of a homeless person in the USA is bigger than that of the average Kyoto resident.
VBE68 TIL there was a psychiatric hospital in Utah that created a haunted house for the public during Halloween season well into the 1990’s.
b9Bv7 TIL chameleon bones are fluorescent in UV light, and can even be seen through their thin skin. The more visible glowing patterns of tubercles (bony projections) can help identify a chameleon's species and gender.
9ybQ TIL that Marion Tinsley played checkers for 45 years and lost only 7 games. He once beat a computer program, and later analysis showed that Tinsley had played the only possible winning strategy from 64 moves out.