› added 12 years ago

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TIL: On this date in 1877, Thomas Edison suggests using the word hello as a telephone greeting. The idea catches on.

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via reddit.com

ANAlw TIL that a prototype television was shown to the public in 1925 at Selfridge's department store in London.
j0gn TIL Samuel Johnson, creator of the first English Dictionary, wrote joke entries including: “Oats: A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland appears to support the people.”
GEDN TIL in 1806 Mary Bateman convinced hundreds of people her hen could predict the world’s end. Bateman sold protective wards for a shilling, but was exposed after a doctor caught her shoving handwritten eggs into her hen. Bateman then practiced medicine and was executed for poisoning her patients.
R5N76 TIL in 1933, Albert Einstein, who left Nazi Germany for the United States, suggested the formation of the International Relief Association. Now known as the International Rescue Committee (IRC), it has provided assistance to millions of refugees and displaced persons across some 40 countries.
e0nED TIL that "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (1965) was rejected at first by CBS: they didn't like that amateur children were doing the voices, they didn't like the "anti-consumerism" theme of the plot -- and they didn't like the music.