› added 9 years ago

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TIL: More members of Alcoholics Anonymous die from cigarette related illnesses than alcohol. Including one of the co-founders who continued smoking even after needing an oxygen tank to breathe.

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OoKda TIL that Robert Stack was not the original host of Unsolved Mysteries but rather Raymond Burr who was subsequently followed by Karl Malden who both hosted specials. Stack hosted the first regular season
ZDd4 TIL to justify the > $1 trillion spent on counter terrorism since 9/11, homeland security would have had to prevent more than 4 dozen deaths and $400 million dollars of damage from terrorist attacks in the US per day… NOT counting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
6ElDZ TIL Casey J Fury, a civillian sandblaster/painter, started a fire onboard nuclear submarine USS Miami, so he could go home early. Several were injured fighting the fire. Fury confessed, and was given a 17 yr prison sentence and $400,000,000 fine. Never repaired, Miami was decommissioned 3/28/2014.
e9l5 TIL Star Trek’s Captain Kirk was named for explorer of the Pacific, Captain Cook and that the title of the pilot episode was an homage to one of Cook’s diary entries: “ambition leads me … farther than any other man has been before me”
DQD7j TIL in 1884, LaMarcus Adna Thompson invented rollercoasters to deter people from gambling, drinking, and other morally questionable activities. The rollercoaster was called the Switchback Railway located at Coney Island, New York.