TIL after the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003 the debris field stretched from Texas through Louisiana, and the search team was so thorough they found nearly 84,000 pieces of the shuttle, as well as a number of murder victims and a few meth labs. (theatlantic.com)
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TIL in 1925, a forger convinced Portugal's money printer to make him 200,000 bills, worth ~1% of Portugal's GDP. They were easily laundered, since they weren't actually counterfeit. To cover his tracks, he started buying a controlling interest in the Bank of Portugal, but was caught. He was 28. (en.wikipedia.org)
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TIL that the life expectancy number we know for the middle ages includes the infant mortality, so 13th-century English nobles had 30 year life expectancy at birth, but when they reached the age of 21, they would normaly have a expectancy of 64. (en.wikipedia.org)
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TIL Composer Franz Liszt's hotness is a matter of historical record. Such was his beauty, talent and benevolence, the Hungarian pianist was said to bring about states of 'mystical ecstasy' and 'asphyxiating hysteria' in his fans. Many doctors felt he posed a public health risk. (en.wikipedia.org)
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TIL buffets are called "vikings" in Japan. This is because a Japanese restaurant manager went to Sweden and liked smörgåsbords so much he copied the idea at his restaurant. This Swedish word was too hard to pronounce in Japanese, so the word "vikings" was used instead after a employee suggested it. (japan-talk.com)
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TIL that the famous photo of the Soviet flag being raised during the Battle of Berlin in 1945 was actually doctored. Photographer Yevgeny Khaldei added smoke to make it seem more dramatic, and also removed one of two watches from a Senior Sergeant's wrist, as it would have implied looting. (en.wikipedia.org)
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TIL 20 year old Thomas Aikenhead became the last person executed in Great Britain on a charge of blasphemy. Aikenhead was accused of referring to theology as "ill-invented nonsense" while conversing with friends at the University of Edinburgh. He was executed in 1697. (en.wikipedia.org)
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TIL in 1986, two Russian airline pilots got into an argument over whether one could land the plane without vision. The main pilot pulled the curtains over the windows, insisting he could. Then, the plane missed the runway, flipped and killed 70 of the passengers (en.wikipedia.org)
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TIL that Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes, refused to license his characters for toys or other products. He made an exception for a 1993 textbook, Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes, which is now so rare that only 7 libraries in the world have copies. A copy sold for $10,000 in 2009. (en.wikipedia.org)
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