› added 1 week ago

5

TIL that "Windfucker" Used to be a Common Term for Kestrels (Small Falcons)

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mKKM TIL of Ning Li, who claimed to discovered antigravity, was hired by the DoD and paid 500k a year, but never heard of again publicly.
ADnEo TIL of the doomed 1936 Eiger north face expedition. One climber died during a training climb and half the expedition left. Of the four climbers who remained, two fell during an avalanche, climbing rope wrapped around the neck of another, and the last froze to death inches from his rescuers.
E1D17 TIL both Caller ID and call waiting were invented Dr Shirley Jackson; the first African-American woman to gain a PhD from MIT. Her breakthroughs in theoretical physics & telecommunications also allowed for portable fax, fibre optic cables, and solar cells.
NXZVJ TIL that as the Soviet Union collapsed, a cosmonaut named Sergei Krikalev was left stranded on board a Soviet space station. Because of this, he spent 311 consecutive days in space, twice as long as was originally planned.
OojnY TIL of The American Service-Members' Protection Act, AKA "The Hague Invasion Act"