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TIL that on 14 June 1919, Alcock and Brown completed the first nonstop transatlantic flight in a modified WWI bomber. Battling freezing winds, fog, and mechanical failures, they landed in an Irish bog. The achievement won them £10,000 and they were knighted by King George V for their historic feat.

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yWeM TIL In 1988 Ian Mckellen visited Michael Howard, then Environment Secretary, to lobby against Section 28. Howard refused to change his position but did ask him to leave an autograph for his children. McKellen agreed, but wrote, “Fuck off, I’m gay.”
5VanP TIL the Mediterranean once dried up. Then, water from the Atlantic broke through (creating the Strait of Gibraltar) and refilled the entire basin within a couple years or even months, according to the leading theory. The flow rate would've been 1,000x more than the Amazon River today.
5VGmR TIL According to the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), 97% of all clothes and 98% of all shoes sold in the US today are imported. The vast majority of those are imported from China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and India.
wLQ71 TIL The shaggy coat of sloths are host to symbiotic green algae which camouflages the sloth in trees and provides it nutrients. The green color of the algae makes sloths the only green mammal.
84LL TIL the library posters in “The Breakfast Club” can also be seen in the school halls of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Both John Hughes films were shot back-to-back to save time and money.