› added 4 days ago

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TIL "Murphy's Law" originated during rocket sled tests that took place in 1948-49 at Edwards Air Force Base in southern California, and is named after USAF Captain Edward A. Murphy. Murphy went on to make crew escape systems for the F-4, SR-71, B-1 and X-15.

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pa9Q TIL that a Soviet underground nuclear test triggered an earthquake that measured 6.97 on the Richter scale and created a 2 km lake with the ensuing 80 million ton avalanche!
14kV TIL Secret Service paid cybercriminal Albert Gonzalez $75,000/year as salary to act as an informant, while he simultaneously ran his own multi-millon dollar credit card fraud empire.
dDv9r TIL that in 2009, Burger King launched the “Whopper Sacrifice” campaign, offering a free Whopper to anyone who deleted 10 Facebook friends—and then notifying those friends why they were deleted.
WkeoY TIL In 1971 Fleetwood Mac had to cancel a sold out show booked at the Whiskey A Go Go when their guitarist Jeremy Spencer simply vanished into thin air. He was eventually found having cut off all his hair, dressed in shabby clothes, and joined a cult called The Children of God.
J1Y1k TIL that 40% of Finnish POWs captured by the Red Army during WWII died in captivity.