› added 6 years ago

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TIL that after surviving the explosion of a rocket launch failure, the first thing the Soviet cosmonauts asked their rescue crews was cigarettes, but they were given shots of vodka instead

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YpgjZ TIL - When the phone was first invented, Alexander Bell insisted that saying "Ahoy" was the correct way of answering the phone.
9wwKD TIL Major-General Charles George Gordon was a British Army officer who made his military reputation in China. He was placed in command of the "Ever Victorious Army" which was instrumental in putting down the Taiping Rebellion. The Emperor of China promoted Gordon to the rank of tidu.
ANlda TIL that model Evelyn Nesbit became known for her involvement in a feud between her husband Harry Thaw and infamous architect Stanford White who drugged and assaulted her at the age of 16, this led to Thaw murdering White inside Madison Square Garden II in the year 1906.
rR95w TIL In 1966 Ronald Reagan wrote to JellyBelly, saying "We owe you a special measure of thanks for helping keep our state government running smoothly." "It's gotten to the point...where we can hardly start a meeting or make a decision without passing around a jar of jelly beans."
LkRE0 TIL about the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a series of nuclear reactors and processing labs with a history of meltdowns and fires that resulted in radiological releases 25 miles from downtown Los Angeles. The incident in 1959 was so bad they opened control room loading doors to vent contamination.