› added 7 months ago

21

TIL in 1928, the co-founder of Universal Pictures, Carl Laemmle Sr. made his son, Carl Jr., the studio head as a 21st birthday gift. Universal already had a reputation then for nepotism - 70 of Carl Sr.'s relatives were once on the payroll. This led to their downfall as owners of the studio in 1936

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vjB4 TIL On December 5, 1933, when the 21st Amendment was passed to end Prohibition, American journalist H. L. Mencken celebrated with a glass of water, calling it “my first in 13 years.”
PYMJE TIL that, after the Siege of Leningrad, there were so many rats that four wagons of cats were brought in to fight them. Citizens erected statues to those cats many years later.
1dNO TIL In 1989, a bottle, also from Thomas Jefferson’s collection, was valued at an astronomical $500,000 by its owner, William Sokolin. When Sokolin took the wine with him to a Margaux dinner at the Four Season Hotel, a waiter knocked the bottle over, breaking it. Insurers paid out $225,000.
gDZ9 TIL that it would take 76 work days for the average person to read the all privacy policies they agree to in a year.
e0Omk TIL: After annexing Crimea in 2014, Russia began planning construction on the longest bridge in Europe, a 19km road and rail bridge connecting Crimea with mainland Russia. Such a bridge had been considered since 1903, it was completed in 2018.