› added 12 years ago

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TIL That Frano Selak has survived 7 near death experiences, including being ejected from a plane midflight and then won the Croatian lottery with the first ticket he ever bought. He then gave away his fortune saying “Money cannot buy happiness”

Read more telegraph.co.uk

via reddit.com

9ww0Q TIL that the first person to break the sound barrier wasn't Chuck Yeager. That record belongs to Nazi test pilot Lothar Sieber, who crashed his rocket powered (partially) wooden aircraft into the ground at just over Mach 1 in 1945.
6ExQw TIL Hans Zimmer, composer extraordinaire behind Interstellar among others, played synthesizers with The Buggles ("Video Killed the Radio Star").
OX94 TIL that African wild dogs are the most successful predators/hunters, even better than lions, with a kill rate per chase of more than 85%
BrVxd TIL Stephen King's 1974 novel, Carrie, was rejected by 30 publishers before Doubleday bought it and paid him a $2,500 advance. The hardcover sold only 13,000 copies, but Signet bought the paperback rights for $400,000, finally allowing King to quit teaching and become a full-time writer.
grBoy TIL Denzel Washington, the actor who never watches his own films and shuns fame.