› added 8 years ago

808

TIL there is a child of a Civil War soldier who is still alive and receiving a monthly pension from the government ($73.13) for her father’s service in the Union Army.

Read more time.com

via reddit.com

xV9Og TIL of Hatty, a Labrador retriever who was sworn in as an IL County "Comfort Dog." Her paw was on a law book as an oath was read. Hatty's job is to comfort sexual trauma victims during testimony and interviews; the dog will work 9 - 5 on up to 200 cases per year. She was trained by prison inmates.
gVGy TIL the “Nigerian Prince” scam is deliberately crafted with an outlandish premise and using poor english, because by sending an email that repels all but the most gullible the scammer gets the most promising marks to self-select, reducing “false positive” responses and increasing profitability
9wbMr TIL that Abebe Bikila won the marathon at the 1960 Rome Olympics running barefoot, after failing to find shoes that fit him properly. He not only set a world record but also became the first Black African athlete to win an Olympic gold medal.
v1PZL TIL that in a 1986 poll during the AIDS crisis by the LA Times, 50 percent of adults surveyed supported a quarantine of AIDS patients, 48 percent would approve of identity cards for those who test positive for antibodies causes AIDS and 15 percent favored tattooing AIDS victims.
BrJlb TIL Alexander Scourby recorded the first audio book version of the King James Bible. The American Bible Society distributed the recordings as The Talking Bible, a set of 169 LP records with a running time of 84.5 hours. Scourby recorded 422 books and considered Talking Books his most important work.