› added 7 years ago

98

TIL in 1994 a FedEx flight crew fought off a potential hijacker who was also a FedEx employee trying to commit suicide. They inverted their plane pinning him to the roof, and they almost flied at supersonic speed.

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xRo5 TIL Michael Crichton, the screenwriter of Jurassic Park, had a novel (Disclosure) and a television show (ER) reach U.S. number one at the same time the film did in 1994. He is the only person to achieve these hits simultaneously.
yQMQX TIL that the Colosseum was named after The Colossus of Nero, a bronze, 30 meter high statue that was close by and the statue was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
NbBe TIL An experiment on worms survived the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and their descendents were flown to the space station in 2011 by Space Shuttle Endeavor.
m1jmo TIL A former skyscraper hotel in downtown Houston was left empty from 1988 until 2013 when it was converted into a Holiday Inn. The vacant building still had electricity, a library, and squattors who made themselves at home with leftover furnishings
b6vWa TIL that British prisoners were considered unsuitable for farm labour as being "particularly arrogant to the local population" and "particularly well treated by the womenfolk"