› added 12 years ago

84

TIL that minutes before the Halifax Explosion (the largest ever non-nuclear, man-made explosion), a dispatcher named Vince Coleman returned to his station to send a warning telegram, saving 300 lives at the cost of his own.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

KYo9 TIL Leo Tolstoy wrote a book in 1908 called “Letter to a Hindu” in which he argued that the only way for India to gain independence from Britain was through non-violent resistance. Gandhi read this book and others by Tolstoy. They struck up a correspondence and the course of history was changed.
WOwY TIL the most dangerous category of the Guinness Book of Records is the Banzai Skydive - a diver throws his parachute at 10,000 ft and attempts to secure it.
wojAY TIL In 1998, Hyundai founder Chung Ju-yung sent 1001 cattle as a symbol of positive progress from South Korea to North Korea as humanitarian aid during a famine to promote peace and strengthen economic cooperation between the two countries. Sadly, many of them didn't survive the first winter season.
mYXo TIL that Charleston, AR was the first southern school system to integrate (not Little Rock, AR.) When asked how it could be done without violence, an attorney named Dale Bumpers said, “We’ll just do it.” The board integrated the schools without announcing it to the press, and there was no violence.
mxjrY TIL Aaron Burr was the only Founding Father who believed wholeheartedly in women's rights