› added 5 years ago

65

TIL of the United Flight 811 disaster; a jumbo jet's cargo door blew out, tearing a hole dozens of feet wide in the plane's body, killing nine people, and destroying two engines with debris. Despite the heavy damage, the plane kept flying and the crew landed safely, saving 346 people.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

5Ybr8 TIL When George Carlin created his 'Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television' bit, the FCC didn't have the legal authority to ban dirty words from public airways. That bit, played uncensored by a NYC radio station, led to the getting that authority.
WkLOX TIL in 1971 David Scott smuggled a 'Fallen Astronaut' sculpture onto the Apollo 15 lunar mission and placed it on the Moon's surface to "commemorate the astronauts and cosmonauts who have died in the advancement of space exploration."
Eg4XX TIL that after the Goliad Campaign in which Mexican forces defeated the Texian Army, an order came down to massacre the Texans. Mexican General José de Urrea who was responsible for defeating the Texans, was strongly opposed to the massacre but was ignored.
VxAm TIL of Yi Qi, a small feathered and winged dinosaur. While many dinosaurs had feathers and what could be called “wings” in a sense, Yi Qi had a bat-like membrane connecting its third finger to its side, making it look like a real world dragon (or wyvern for pedantry).
VwjG TIL that in 2010 a british policeman drove an Ice cream van into the middle of a riot and played “ice-cream van” music in an attempt to calm the youths. The official report was, ‘humour defused the situation and the trouble stopped’.