› added 4 years ago

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TIL NASA was founded about a year after the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik, an artificial satellite and the first human made object to ever enter orbit, because it terrified the United States that this would give the USSR significant ground in the Cold War

Read more history.nasa.gov

via reddit.com

wLOOo TIL the Barbie Liberation Organization swapped the voice boxes in ~400 talking G.I. Joes and talking Barbies, then returned them to stores. Kids bought them and heard Barbie say "Vengeance is mine!" and G.I. Joe say "I love shopping!"
5VOxn TIL about Aaron Feuerstein, CEO of Malden Mills who in 1995 decided to continue paying his 3,000 employees their full salaries after the factory burned down while the factory was rebuilt
wL1WY TIL about Kelly Pilcher, a young woman from Texas, who needed to have a rib removed. After the surgery succeeded, she took her removed rib to a knifemaker, and had it made into a castration knife.
v1kkL TIL: Most musicians of the eastern European dance/hip-hop/rock/pop band "Carla's Dreams," even while getting songs onto (Euro-) top airplay charts, have managed to keep their identities secret for almost a decade. They perform while wearing masks.
ndaG TIL Edmund McIlhenny, inventor of Tabasco sauce, did not consider his sauce to be a major accomplishment and made no mention of it in his autobiography toward the end of his life, nor was it mentioned in his obituary.