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TIL Galileo was convicted of heresy partially due to a misunderstanding. In his book he gave the character arguing against Heliocentrism the name "Simplicio" after a famous philosopher. In Italian this could also be construed as "simpleton" though and the church/Pope took it as him insulting them.

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voQj TIL that the US religion industry is worth $1.2 Trillion a year, more than America’s 10 biggest tech companies, combined!
LQDQ9 TIL a European "Get Some Nuts" Snickers commercial featuring Mr. T using a vehicle-mounted rotary machine gun to shoot Snickers bars at a speedwalker for being a "disgrace to the man race" was pulled in 2008 after a group in the U.S. complained that the advertisement was homophobic.
BAWe TIL The wife of L. Ron Hubbard consulted doctors who recommended he “be committed to a private sanatorium for psychiatric observation and treatment of a mental ailment known as paranoid schizophrenia.” Thereafter, Hubbard criticised psychiatry as a “barbaric and corrupt profession”.
kJ4AE TIL In the 1980s pharmaceutical giant Bayer discovered their blood clotting drug was tainted with the HIV virus. Instead of scrapping the drug and taking a loss they sold it to unknowinging countries in Asia and South America leading to thousands becoming infected.
9YYOM TIL Ohio Congressman Ralph Regula spearheaded an effort to prevent renaming Mt McKinley to Denali from 1975 to 2009 because it would tarnish the legacy of Ohio-born President McKinley (who had no ties to Alaska or the mountain).