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TIL about the Union Army Balloon Corps, a branch of the Union Army during the American Civil War. It employed a group of prominent American aeronauts and seven specially built, hydrogen balloons to perform aerial reconnaissance on the Confederate States Army.

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w8eY TIL Marilyn Monroes was Playboy’s first Sweetheart (later Playmate) of the Month. Marilyn had been paid $50 to model for the picture in 1949; Hugh Hefner bought it for $500 and launched an empire.
ANDj7 TIL that Nearly half of Americans (49%) have parallelophobia, or the fear of parallel parking. Only about half (53%) feel “very confident” in their parallel parking skills.
e04PL TIL that in the European Union you are not allowed to skip your break if you are working more than 6 hours a day.
JXEj TIL that scientists are working on bioluminescent trees. By merging the light producing compound found in jellyfish with plants, the team envisions illuminating city streets with trees that glow at night.
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.