› added 9 years ago

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TIL in 2012 a 9-year-old boy decided he wanted to help the families of fallen US soldiers. He started a Facebook page and ‘traded up’ his toy soldier into $900 worth of Disney World gift certificates. He then gave the dream holiday to a 2 year-old girl who had lost her father in Afghanistan.

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5V7G8 TIL in the 1970s hysteria over the arrival of killer bees in the United States created a genre of "killer bee movies". One of the most well-known movies was the 1978 film "The Swarm", directed by Irwin Allen and starring Michael Caine. It scored 9% at Rotten Tomatoes.
wLyZW TIL that when Henry Ford doubled the pay of his auto workers from $2.50 per day to $5, he didn't do it for altruistic reasons. His factory had one of the highest turnover rates (due to danger of the assembly line and tedium of the work). After the raises, it dropped to the lowest.
9mMm TIL of a character in Sesame Street that wanted to demolish the street in order to build Grump Tower, named after himself, Ronald Grump.
xYe7 TIL that in 1974, a young Tom Hanks wrote a letter to director George Roy Hill outlining how he should be “discovered” and that one day he will become “a hometown American boy who has hit the big-time, owns a Porsche, and calls Robert Redford ‘Bob’
ADPEo TIL the political "Left" and "Right" picked those sides in 1789, when French revolutionaries in the National Assembly decided which side of the room they would sit on. "So as to avoid the shouts, oaths, and indecencies that enjoyed free rein in the opposing camp." -Baron de Gauville