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5

TIL scurvy was so common during the Age of Sail that shipowners and governments assumed a 50% death rate from the disease for their sailors on any major voyage.

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BgoOr TIL that a 17 year old Boy Scout created a homemade “breeder” nuclear reactor. The experiment wasn’t entirely successful, but the FBI had to intervene. He later died several years later due to unrelated causes
OG9Oa TIL the concorde used fuel pumps and multiple fuel tanks to move its fuel around mid-flight to trim its center-of-mass to help maintain stability as it passed supersonic speeds.
6EZOw TIL that about 110 children are kidnapped by strangers every year in the United States. About 40% of such cases end in the child's death, and another 4% with the child never being recovered. The vast majority of the 50,000+ yearly reported missing children cases are resolved with the child found.
DjQe TIL while researching for the film Castaway, screenwriter William Broyles Jr. chose to strand himself for one week on an isolated beach in the Gulf of California to force himself to search for water and food and obtain his own shelter.
KWgJ TIL that Rhode Island fielded a regiment during the Revolutionary war filled with Black soldiers, because they couldn’t get enough Whites to sign up.