› added 10 years ago

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TIL in 1789, after he lost control of his ship in a mutiny and was forced onto a cramped boat, British officer William Bligh led 18 loyal sailors on a 47 day, 4164 mile voyage from Tonga to Indonesia. They had 4 swords, a week’s worth of food and water, and a compass. All but one, survived the trip.

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wL191 TIL of WW2 US Army Captain Moffatt Burriss who, along with two other me in a Jeep, accidentally stumbled upon a 15,000 strong German Panzer Corps outside of Berlin toward the end of the war. He approached the enemy commander alone and tricked him into surrendering his army and being taken captive.
GY7Dj TIL that in 1917, Ernie Shore threw a "perfect game", with 27 outs without allowing a baserunner. However, he is only credited with a combined no-hitter because he pitched in relief of the starter, Babe Ruth, who was ejected for punching the umpire after walking the first batter of the game.
vPLyr TIL of Ken McElroy, who was shot dead in front of up to 46 witnesses, but nobody was able to be convinced to take the stand due to his reputation and behaviour. The killer has never been prosecuted.
Y7gQP TIL the streets were accidentally paved with gold in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Australia in the late 19th century. In this mining town, rocks containing gold-bearing tellurites were misidentified as pyrite and discarded. Some of these discarded rocks were used as paving stones.
LkVRd TIL - The guy who wrote the dialogue for Portal was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis while working on it. He tried to quit Valve, and Gabe Newell gave him extended leave and told him that his only job was to get better.