› added 1 year ago

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TIL that Tycho Brahe, a Danish astronomer, lost his nose in a duel with his cousin over either a mathematical formula or who was the superior mathematician. He wore a prosthetic nose for the rest of his life.

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D17kp TIL Walt Disney World near Orlando briefly had a real airport with a singing runway. Grooves in the tarmac were spaced so the lines played the opening notes of "When You Wish Upon a Star" when planes rolled over them. The airport closed in 1972.
wLBG7 TIL about Jolt Cola, created in the 1980s as a stimulant for students and young professionals with the slogan "All the sugar, twice the caffeine!"
XYl8 TIL that in 1987, two North Korean agents planted a bomb on a South Korean passenger airliner, killing all 115 people on board.
8aD88 TIL Union General William Sherman instructed his troops to differentiate between the "usually hostile" rich and the "usually neutral or friendly" industrious/poor when "appropriating" horses, mules, wagons etc. during Sherman's March to the Sea
awYGy TIL that in 1978, a Soviet scientist named Anatoli Bugorski stuck his head in a particle accelerator that sent a beam of protons traveling at nearly the speed of light straight through his head. He survived with half his face paralysed & deafness in one ear, completing his doctorate shortly after.