› added 7 years ago

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TIL that when Bill Watterson turned down the opportunity to license and merchandise “Calvin and Hobbes,” it was estimated that he was turning down $300-400 million to maintain the integrity and purity of the comic.

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R5g7Q TIL that while Harland Sanders was a real person, he wasn't a real Colonel. He received the honorary title of Kentucky Colonel when he was 44. He didn't found KFC until he was 61 and he lived to be 90.
618J TIL that on September 11th 1973, US-backed General Pinochet overthrew the democratically elected leader of Chile, Salvadore Allende. Pinochet ordered an air strike on the Presidential Palace, labor activists and famous folk guitarists were rounded up for torture, disappeared, and killed.
yXyv TIL that during the cold war, when navy divers repairing a whale enclosure heard a human-like voice saying “out, out, out,” and got out of the water to see nobody, they found out that a beluga whale named “Noc” had learned to mimic human speech and was trying to communicate with them.
d15r TIL Yew trees can exceed 1000 years, are often found in graveyards, and have a long association with death; they’re deadly poisonous to humans, with no known antidote. However, the tree is used to make taxanes, which are used to fight cancer.
R7kw8 TIL that Washington DC police ran a fake hip-hop studio to attract criminals and record proof of their illicit deals. "Manic Enterprises" made 70 arrests, snagged $7.2 million in cocaine, and confiscated 161 illegal weapons. Cops shut it down after they heard a gang planned on robbing the studio.