› added 6 years ago

71

TIL the tradition of putting Christmas lights up outside started in Denver, CO on Christmas Eve, 1914. D.D. Sturgeon, founder of Sturgeon Electric, wanted to give his ill son some Christmas joy, so he wrapped his pine trees with electric bulbs, which were dipped in red and green paint.

Read more kdvr.com

via reddit.com

M7k10 TIL about Robert Hanssen, a former FBI agent regarded as the most damaging spy in U.S history. He made an average of $67,000 a year selling thousands of top secret documents to Russian intelligence for 22 years. The ex-KGB agent the FBI hired to catch him was paid $7 million.
eplvE TIL in the Red Sea, giant moray eels have been observed hunting cooperatively with coral groupers. The grouper approaches an eel's hiding place and shakes its head rapidly to indicate that it wants to hunt. The eel recognizes the signal and accompanies it on the hunt where they work in tandem.
lRDa TIL the NFL owns the licensing rights to every team except the Cowboys. In 1995 Cowboy’s owner Jerry Jones started to make his own deals, NFL sued him for 300 million, to make the league back down, Jerry counter sued them for 750 million.
ZKLR TIL that the schizophrenic artist Mary Barnes discovered her talent while undergoing treatment at Kingsley Hall during which she was encouraged to regress to a childlike state and paint on the walls with her feces. When they needed a solution for the smell, they decided to give her paint.
YpnPr TIL there were American soldiers during World War II, who used fake tanks and pre-recorded sounds to deceive the Nazis into thinking their army was bigger than it actually was. They were called the ‘Ghost Army’.