› added 10 years ago

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TIL that in 1983, the Soviet Union shot down a commercial Korean flight (departing via Anchorage) when it drifted in Russian airspace. As a result, President Reagan declassified a secret U.S. military system to aid international flight tracking. Today this system is known as GPS.

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yQQAa TIL that Bruges, Belgium must have at least 58 swans in the city canals to avoid the curse that was made on 1488.
ZGJG TIL that even though the Hindenburg was inflated with 7 million cubic feet of highly flammable hydrogen gas, it had a smoking room behind airlock doors.
ywyp TIL that cats have a non-lethal terminal velocity, so they can survive falls from very large heights
v1LWB TIL that Hitler was getting pig parts, cocaine and morphine injections sometimes several times a day
wL6W1 TIL that Tsar Bomba (most powerful explosive ever detonated by mankind; 4000x Hiroshima; 59 mi high mushroom cloud 10x height of Mt. Everest) was dropped with a parachute so the release plane could fly 28 miles away, giving the crew a 50% chance of survival...