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TIL that Gerald Ratner, ex-CEO of a budget jewelry chain, destroyed £500 million in company value with a single speech in which he called his products "total crap" and "cheaper than an M&S prawn sandwich but probably wouldn't last as long." Such gaffes are now known as "doing a Ratner."

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R7v9j TIL when Turkey was outraged over Mount Ararat included in Soviet Armenia's coat of Arms, Nikita Khrushchev responded to Turkey with "Why do you have a moon on your flag? The moon doesn't belong to Turkey, not even half the moon". Turkey dropped the issue after this.
BgbW TIL Mormon missionaries can play half court but not full court basketball and can not swim. rule 55, 56, 59.
OoRwL TIL that for 33 years scientists have been studying a common ancestor populations of E. coli in lab constant conditions which now surpasses 60,000 generations. In 2003 the bacteria began to consume a previously ignored carbon source that had been present in their environment from the start.
kOm5d TIL that in 1961, Goodyear released "illuminated tires" made of a translucent material available in several different colours. Each tire contained 18 light bulbs that would generate an electroluminscent-like glow on the ground and in the wheel wells.
AN784 TIL that Moctesuma Esparza, one of the organizers of the “Chicano Blowouts” of 1968, went on to work for “Sesame Street” and helped produce the first bilingual national show in the U.S., “Villa Alegre”, on PBS.