Post * j64lE — Curious Curator

› added 4 months ago

17

TIL about Alan Magee, an American airman during WWII. In 1943, he was on a bombing run over Saint-Nazaire, France, when his plane broke apart in mid-air and his parachute was torn. Magee blacked out from lack of oxygen and survived a 22,000-foot fall by crashing through a train station's glass roof.

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8eKea TIL that in the 1600-1700's Sweden minted coins made out of copper. Given the abundance and low value of copper, the coins were massive. The largest coin, the 10-daler, weighed nearly 44 pounds.

XE98j TIL about Kuchisake-onna, or "Slit-mouthed Woman", who is a vengeful spirit from Japanese folklore that appears as a woman wearing a surgical mask.

LkpM9 TIL that Michael Caine spotted Shakira Baksh in a advertisement for Maxwell House Coffee, tracked her down and married her two years later. They’ve been together ever since.

E1o5P TIL Pope Clement VIII loved coffee: he supposedly tasted the "Muslim drink" [coffee] at the behest of his priests, who wanted him to ban it. "Why, this Satan's drink is so delicious, that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it. We shall fool Satan by baptizing it..."

5V749 TIL of Sir Anthony Meyer, a Conservative MP who challenged Margaret Thatcher for the leadership. Dismissed as having no chance by the media, his challenge ultimately brought Thatcher down from power, as it showed how many of her own party had grown tired of her.