› added 1 year ago

54

TIL about the Schienenzeppelin, a train powered by a rear-mounted propeller similar to a helicopter, capable of reaching 140 km/h (87 mph). Designed in 1930s Germany, it was intended to be a futuristic mode of transportation but never entered service due to technical issues and WWII

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

engn TIL that the movie Akeelah and the Bee was produced by Starbucks.
kORgW TIL that in 1969, at the height of the Cold War, the Apollo 11 crew carried commemorative medals to the moon to honor two Soviet cosmonauts who died as part of the USSR's human spaceflight program
69XPY TIL that the city council of the 2.5 square mile city of Bell in Los Angeles fraudulently paid themselves the highest salaries for the positions in the country, over $750k per year, largely set up via a voter fraud scheme to remove salary caps.
OoKn6 TIL some streets in Old San Juan, PR are paved with blue cobblestones, called adoquines, and were made from the waste, or slag, that resulted from iron smelting, then cast into blocks and brought to the island as ballasts in the bottoms of 18th-century Spanish ships.
e0Q7D TIL that in 2016, boxing promoter John Carden scheduled a boxing match between a pro fighter with 10 matches under his belt and an intellectually disabled man who had never been in a boxing ring before. It was stopped after two rounds.