› added 6 years ago

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TIL of the Gimli Glider. In 1983, Canadian plane was filled with 22,300 LB of fuel instead of in KG, leading the plane to run out of fuel halfway through the flight. With no fuel or power, the pilot successfully glided the plane onto a racetrack. There were no casualties.

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gMl8y TIL Norbert Pearlroth was the silent partner of Ripley's Believe It or Not. He was the soul researcher, answering 3000 letters a week, examining 7000 books a year, spending 10 hours a day, six days a week at the New York Library, and fluent in 14 languages. He produced 24 items a week for 52 years.
NJWN TIL: One of the founding fathers, Benjamin Rush, believed that blacks were actually white underneath, but they were stricken with a non-contagious disease which darkened their skin colour. However, he believed with proper treatment, blacks could be cured and become white.
oRjro TIL the A-1 Reactor(nicknamed Annushka) melted down 3 times in its first year of operation(with the third one killing at least 173 people)
9YPND TIL Jim Becker, a Packers fan hall-of-famer, routinely sold his blood to buy season tickets, which inadvertently saved his life when he was found to have Hemochromatosis, a genetic disorder that leads to toxic iron deposition in the body, and an early death. The only treatment is bloodletting.
J18x4 TIL that Robbie Williams covered "She's the One" without the original artist's permission, and deliberately angers him further by claiming to have written it when introducing the song live