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TIL a worse-than-expected storm wreaked havoc on the 303 yachts in the 1979 Fastnet Race. There were 194 retirements, 75 capsized boats, 24 boats abandoned (5 of which believed to be sunk), and the deaths of 15 sailors. Of the 303 yachts that started the race, only 86 finished.

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xVVGk Of all the bodies in our solar system, the sun is probably the one we want to give the widest berth. It gushes radiation, and even though its surface is the coolest part of the star, it burns at about 9,940°F, hot enough to incinerate just about any material. As such, there are no plans to send a manned mission in its direction anytime soon (Mars is much more interesting, anyway), but it can't hurt to figure out at what distance a person would want to turn back. You can get surprisingly close. The sun is about 93 million miles away from Earth, and if we think of that distance as a football field, a person starting at one end zone could get about 95 yards before burning up.
Pe1J TIL The man who took the most memorable photo of the Loch Ness Monster confessed to it being fake on his deathbed.
a87eZ TIL Retention rates among students studying engineering are among the lowest of all majors
P1koG TIL Empress Elisabeth of Austria was assassinated by an anarchist who intended to kill any random royal he could find, no matter who they were. She was traveling under a fake name without security because she hated processions, but the killer knew her whereabouts because a local paper leaked it
KW5a TIL that the French word for wooden shoe, ‘sabot’ is the probable root of the word sabotage: and refers to the tactic by early Dutch unionists of throwing sabots into the gears of factory or farm machinery, effectively stopping work until the equipment could be repaired.