› added 4 years ago

63

TIL about history's most expensive "hyphen" when a NASA programmer missed out a single hyphen whilst transcribing a mathematical formula for the guidance system which caused an entire NASA rocket launch to be aborted and the rocket destroyed.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

EYxX TIL the FBI estimates that at any given time, there are from 35 to 50 active serial killers in the U.S.
XEAMj TIL: During the times of Columbus there was a general consensus that the Earth was indeed NOT flat but Round & the myth that he set out to disprove flat-earthers was perpetuated by US authors of the 19th Century
rNVn1 TIL of Matthew Beard (Stymie Beard from the Little Rascals aka Our Gang) had 13 brothers and sisters. Because his paycheck helped the family to survive, his parents allowed him to rename one of his younger brothers. His parents subsequently allowed him to name his other siblings as they were born
Z89Lo TIL that fungus is more closely related to animals than plants.
jNmeR TIL The Maya civilization used chocolate as money and the disruption of the cacao supply which fueled political power may have led to an economic breakdown, causing the collapse of the empire.