› added 5 years ago

120

TIL: Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell wrote a secret memo detailing the duty of judges to protect American business executives. "One does not exaggerate to say that, in terms of political influence that the American business executive is truly the “forgotten man.”

ner07 TIL about Project Pluto, a nuclear weapon which would deliver multiple nuclear warheads to various different targets and fly low over populated areas with an unshielded nuclear reactor before finally crashing into the ground and releasing deadly radiation for months
MV8m TIL - In a nearby galaxy an object was found travelling 4x the speed of light. The object started sending out radio waves, and the emission does not look like anything seen anywhere in the known universe.
X8Dr TIL Eric Carle, the American-born illustrator and writer of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, moved to Germany as a kid in the 1930s, and was conscripted to dig trenches for the German army when he was 15 years old. Now 87 years old, he is one of the youngest surviving WWII veterans.
X0aQ6 TIL In 1959 the submarine USS Barbero assisted the US Post Office in an experiment in Rocket Mail by launching a modified Regulus missile containing two containers of mail towards the Naval Auxiliary Air Station in Mayport, Florida. The missile successfully landed after 22 minutes of travel.
E15MX TIL of "cargo cults", originated in early 20th century tribal communities on a number of Pacific islands, whose followers believe that either an American WWII soldier named John Frum, or Prince Philip, are their saviours.