› added 4 years ago

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TIL that in 1967, the Tax Court of the United States ruled, over IRS protests, that catching a baseball one‐handed was so remarkable and valuable a technique that a player was justified in deducting as a business expense a cash payment to his father as compensation for teaching him

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R5Mpa TIL that Klaus Barbie, also known as The Butcher of Lyon, was a Nazi officer during World War II. After the war, United States intelligence services, aided his escape to Bolivia, where he advised the regime on how to repress opposition through torture.
e0Pak TIL of Deborah Sampson (1760-1827), who fought in the Revolutionary War as Robert Shurtleff and was the only Revolutionary woman to earn a full military pension. Her identity was discovered a year and a half into her service when she fell ill during an epidemic and lost consciousness.
yy5V TIL that William McAdoo’s decision to close the NYSE for 4 months in 1914 to prevent Europeans from selling American securities and exchanging proceeds for USD, and then gold, led to a decisive shift in the global balance of economic power, from Europe to the USA
jNaVv TIL in a 1966 study, a group of engineers, mathematicians, artists, and architects were administered 50 micrograms of LSD and 100 milligrams of mescaline over a period of time. They then discovered solutions to professional problems that were previously unsolvable for them for 3 months
epepL TIL that the Sun is 99.86% of all mass in our solar system. Every other planet, asteroid, and comet only adds up to 7/50th of a single percent.