› added 6 years ago

536

TIL of Andy—a footless goose born in the 1980s who walked around in baby shoes. He rapidly became a huge star and appeared all over the media, before he was murdered in 1991. His death sparked a nation-wide outrage and a $10,000 reward for information about his killer, but the case was never solved.

Read more atlasobscura.com

via reddit.com

NXngb TIL NASA's Gemini 6a astronauts & craft were saved by a fluke. At ignition an electrical plug came off shutting down the engines. Later a dust cover was found left on a gas generator in error. Had the plug not fallen off the furl flow would have been choked, triggering a perilous pad ejection.
ddoQ TIL that some scorpions can shed their tail in order to escape a predator… but doing so also removes their anus (which is found in the tail!) and renders them unable to poop. They can live this way for another eight months.
d8rV9 TIL that in 2008, a Mexican state legislature implemented a surprise drug test for all state lawmakers coming to work to prove if they were clean. The lawmakers nearly trampled over each other trying to reach the door
VMGm0 TIL the Republic of Texas was just one of many secessionist movements in Mexico under the unitary government dominated by Santa Anna. Others include the Republic of the Rio Grande, the Republic of Zacatecas, and the Republic of Yucatán.
pYJgO TIL that the first medical diagnosis describing ADHD was in 1775, which is also the same year that the steam engine was patented and successfully mass-produced.