› added 9 years ago

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TIL that pinball was illegal for 30 years in many major US cities. Politicians thought that pinball was a game based on chance and therefore must have been a mob-run scam. The ban ended when a master pinball player was called in front of a committee to demonstrate his skill.

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KOkQJ TIL: Over 1,000,000 wills in the United States list a dog as the primary beneficiary. A German Shepherd who inherited his owner's money was able to pass $375 million onto his puppies.
9DDG TIL - NASA posted sounds made in space near different planets in 2007. They have been appropriately named “Spooky Space Sounds.” You can listen here.
wooG1 TIL birds are the only living descendants of dinosaurs; birds evolved from a group of dinosaurs called theropods.
omgY TIL in 1953, after co-discovering the structure for DNA, Francis Crick stormed into The Eagle pub - interrupting people’s lunch - to announce they’d “discovered the secret of life.” The pub serves ‘Eagle’s DNA’ beer to this day.
Dp5V TIL that ‘JREF’ has a standing $1mil (US) reward for anyone who can prove supernatural or paranormal powers under mutually agreed upon testing conditions. Since 1964, it has gone unclaimed and every applicant has either failed or not agreed to the testing conditions.