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TIL Bruce Dickinson (lead singer of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden) and his then-solo band drove through the front lines of war in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war. They weren't protected and there were bullets flying around. They played a show for the people trapped in the city.

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OGxna Today I learned that in 2012, a contest was held online for Taylor Swift to perform a concert at your local school. Online trolls mass voted for Boston's Horace Mann School for the Deaf. Swift declined to go, and instead donated $50,000 to.the school.
1aXMr TIL of Betty Ong, a flight attendant aboard American Airlines Flight 11. Ong notified the American Airlines ground crew of the hijacking, staying on the telephone for 25 minutes and relaying vital information that eventually led to the closing of airspace by the FAA for the first time in history.
rN1Mx TIL the chemotherapy paclitaxel (Taxol) was first isolated from the bark of the Pacific yew tree. In 1987, anti-cancer effects were seen, but harvesting bark killed the trees. Scientists then raced to (and succeeded) in synthesizing the drug. Approved in 1992, Taxol still treats many cancers today.
J7b1 TIL In a sunset plane ride from NYC to LA, if you flew 850 mph you would cancel Earth’s rotation, freezing the Sun on the horizon
9Yag7 TIL to defend a South African city under siege in 1899, a mining engineer from Detroit built a 155' high watchtower with search lights and telephones, a water supply system, a bulk refrigeration plant, two armored trains, artillery shells, a cannon, and also the tools needed to build the cannon