› added 6 months ago

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TIL the first spacewalk was plagued with issues including Alexei's feet coming out of his boots, not being able to fit back inside the capsule, and landing in a forest in winter without a heater, waiting over a day for rescue

E1neV TIL that originally all peppers used in Tabasco sauce were grown on one 3-mile long, 2.5-mile wide island (Avery Island) in Louisiana. Today, all peppers are still picked by hand, and much of the salt used in Tabasco production comes from the same island, which is also a salt dome.
awmLL TIL France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands used GMT prior to WW2. The Germans changed them all to Berlin Time (GMT +1h) during the occupation and they never switched back. [Spain also changed in solidarity with Germany.]
Xwo6 TIL Justin Berfield, better know as Reese from Malcolm in the Middle, is now the Chief Creative Officer of Virgin Produced, Virgin’s production company
P18pe TIL that reinforced concrete became popular after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The subsequent fire destroyed much of the city, but those built with reinforced concrete made it "through the ordeal unscathed, where buildings of brick and stone in their immediate vicinity were entirely wrecked."
pKrp TIL Michael Crichton had an MD from Harvard, although he never obtained a license to practice medicine. He also believed patients too often shunned responsibility for their own health, relying on doctors as miracle workers rather than advisors.