yV9MM TIL that the launch of Visa (then known as BankAmericard) was a financial failure, losing millions of dollars. When the card started turning a profit a few years later, the company kept this information secret and allowed negative impressions to linger in order to ward off competition.
m1bKR TIL that the largest semi-submersible structure ever built is the Havfarm 1, a floating mobile salmon farm in Norway which can farm 10000 tons of salmon at any given time.
DQkmV TIL the Catwoman, invented in 1940, did not appear in comic books at all between 1954 and 1965. While exact reason for it is debated it likely was connected to DCs worries that she would push the boundaries of comic book self-regulation in effect at the time and attract negative public attention.
vPxML TIL that an AI company which raised $450M in investments from Microsoft and SoftBank, and was valued at $1.5B, turned out to be 700 Indians just manually coding with no AI whatsoever
J1oml TIL in 2008 Chicago sold off all of its city parking meters to private investors for 75 years, and the private investors already made their money back and turned a profit.
pYj1A TIL about Wilusa, a city in northwest Anatolia referenced in several Hittite records, which some believe to be another name for the city of Troy.
GAamJ TIL former enslaved man turned abolitionist, suffragist, public speaker, writer, government official, and civil rights activist, Frederick Douglass, was the most photographed man in America during the 19th century.
164K8 TIL There was a tornado outbreak that occurred 30 hours before the Super Outbreak of 1974. According to the NWS, the severe weather on April 1 spurred appropriate protective measures a few days later, and consequently "many lives were saved."
oR0oY TIL Australian light switches turn on by pushing the button down, which is the opposite of the US and Canada.
dDgN9 TIL Anthony Olson endured 9 years of chemotherapy (2011-2020) for cancer that he eventually learned he never had. He was told that without treatment, he'd be dead by the end of the year. When a second biopsy came back negative, he was told to ignore it because it meant the treatment was working.
KY1mG TIL about "mechanical doping" - cyclists hiding motors in their bikes to gain an edge. The practice made headlines in 2016 when Belgian rider Femke Van den Driessche was caught with a concealed motor during competition.
a8bPM TIL the American Crocodile is responsible for more fatal attacks on humans than any other crocodilian in the Americas, and is the fourth most dangerous in the world after the Saltwater, Nile, and Mugger crocodile.