› added 11 years ago

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TIL, Koreans reckon the pregnancy period as one year of life for infants, and age increments increase on New Year’s Day rather than on the anniversary of birthdays. Thus, one born immediately before New Year’s Day may only be a few days old in western reckoning, but two years old in Korea.

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6ENLl TIL During his 2009 TED talk, Bill Gates opened a jar of mosquitoes saying “Malaria is spread by mosquitoes. I brought some… I’ll let them roam around. There is no reason only poor people should be infected” and waited for about a minute before telling the audience that the bugs were malaria-free.
4xxo TIL that Wales’ national symbol is a leek because on the eve of the battle against the Saxons, St David advised the Britons to wear leeks in their caps so as to easily distinguish friend from foe. This helped to secure a great victory.
698 TIL that in the 1960s a Russian doctor had to remove his own appendix after it burst because he was the only doctor stationed in a remote antarctic facility with no option for evacuation. He lived to tell the tale.
wo5J7 TIL the first commercial flight of a 747 took place on January 22, 1970. Pan Am’s. Clipper Young America carried 335 passengers and 20 crew members from New York’s JFK Airport to London Heathrow, ushering in the jet age’s second phase: the era of wide body aircraft.
E10j7 TIL that in 2002 a Garuda Indonesia Flight 421 lost both its engines mid-flight due to a severe hailstorm. Relying on only its standby instruments due to a faulty APU, the pilots successfully ditched the aircraft into a narrow and twisted portion of the Bengawan Solo River between two bridges.