› added 10 years ago

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TIL an Air Canada flight in 1983 ran out of fuel mid-flight, but the crew managed to glide the 767 to nearby airport. The plane turned out to have only been filled with half the amount of fuel it needed due to a miscalculation because Canada was in the process of converting to the metric system.

kJkdB TIL Sir Admiral "Blinker" Hall became the UK's Director of Naval Intelligence—a desk job—and played an outsize role in getting the United States into World War I because commanding ships made him seasick.
GEe4 TIL Men have weaker immune systems, higher cholesterol, more heart problems, greater susceptibility to diabetes, higher rates of cancer and lower chances of surviving it. Men make up over 2/3 of murder victims, ¾ of traffic accident fatalities and are 3 times more likely to commit suicide
vJRR TIL after the Nazi’s occupied Warsaw, 80% of the city was destroyed and reconstruction efforts were guided by a series of 1700s cityscape paintings. It was later discovered the painter had made artistic “improvements” … so the rebuilt structures looked different (arguably better) than before.
awOOZ TIL Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin moved to Singapore before Facebook went public and therefore saved himself as much as $100 million in U.S. Capital Gains Taxes
0oO5 TIL the shoshinsha mark is a green and yellow symbol that new Japanese drivers must place on their cars for a year; conversely, the fukushi mark (orange and yellow) is for elderly drivers. Both marks warn other drivers that the marked driver is not very skilled due to inexperience or old age.