› added 11 months ago

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TIL Boeing offered to install solid rockets on their early 727-200 airliners back in the 1960s and 1970s. These were for emergency thrust in the event of an engine failure during takeoff at high altitude airports. Only twelve 727s ever had them, all with Mexicana Airlines for use at Mexico City.

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DQKMJ TIL that Belgian businessman was a big help to the Manhattan Project. He realized how important uranium was and shipped 1,200 tons of it to Staten Island. When Lieutenant Colonel Nichols contacted him, he just said, " You can have the ore now. It's in New York. I was waiting for your visit. "
78E97 TIL that air conditioning was originally invented not for comfort, but to control humidity in a printing company to prevent issues with paper and ink.
5Ngp TIL Switzerland is prepared to blow up its roads, bridges, and tunnels and trigger blockading mountain slides and tree-falls if an invasion were to ever happen.
n1KG TIL Einstein, a parrot with a vocabulary of about 200 words, gave a TED talk.
enp4 TIL recently bankrupted NFL player Vince Young would routinely spend $5k at chain restaurants like TGI Fridays and Cheesecake Factory.