› added 6 months ago

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TIL that Christine Jorgensen, a former WWII GI, became the first American widely known to undergo gender-affirming surgery in the early 1950s, later becoming a public figure and advocate.

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MPZK TIL Christopher Nolan planned a Howard Hughes biographical film starring Jim Carrey, but it was tabled when he learned that Martin Scorsese was making The Aviator. The project he worked on the same year instead? Batman Begins!
p5XZ TIL that in 2013, Google bought the GPS app “Waze” which resulted in each of the 100 employees receiving an average of $1.2 million.
MLp7 TIL that unlike most airlines after 9/11, who collectively lost over $50 billion and shed 160,000 jobs, Southwest Airlines didn’t lay off one employee or ground one flight to save money. Also, when it opened at BWI Airport, fares dropped 70 percent and the number of passengers increased sevenfold.
w0JP TIL there was a little ice age between 1600 and 1814. The river Thames in London used to completely freeze over for 2 months per year allowing “Frost Fairs” to take place with football pitches, bowling matches, fruit-sellers, shoemakers, barbers… even a pub or two.
6Z0X TIL that under a secret, Navy-funded project, WWII scientists actually tried to turn sharks into living remote-controlled suicide bombers.