› added 4 years ago

70

TIL that the name "Triscuit" comes from "electric baked biscuit", which was a marketing ploy in 1903 to make wheat crackers appear modern. At the time, no other crackers were baked electrically.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

oJB7 TIL Canada abruptly cancelled the development of its own fighter jet (Avro Arrow) in the 1950s in favour of Nuclear missiles (Bomarcs). All the engineers left for NASA thereafter.
ADBno TIL of the “I am rich” app, which - for $999.99 - gave you a crappy screensaver with a mis-spelled affirmation message. 8 people purchased it.
5V19r TIL The first time Bobby Kennedy spoke publicly about his brother, President John F. Kennedy's, assassination was while telling a majority-black crowd in Indianapolis that Martin Luther King Jr. had been killed, which is credited with keeping the city calm, while other cities erupted in violence.
PLGw TIL that in 1999, the CEO of Sun Microsystems responded to increasing concerns about computer privacy by saying “You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.”
Z8Oeo TIL while bombing Munich, a B17 got 2 engines knocked out & was denied permission to land in Switzerland. On the flight back to UK the crew jettisoned anything weighty, including their parachutes. They lost another engine but landed in Dover. The plane had 600 Bullet Holes