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TIL that in 3000 BC the North Star was not Polaris, but a star called Thuban, because the axis of the earth was pointed in a different direction back then. This is because of the precession of equinoxes speeding and slowing down of the earth's spin through imperceptible intervals.

Read more starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov

via reddit.com

m1XGp TIL Industrial Biotest Labs (IBT) conducted almost 1/3rd of all safety testing for chemicals and drugs in the US from the 1950s to 70s. It was later was discovered that IBT had been falsifying data amd mislead federal authorities on the safety of many commercial products for approval.
kJg TIL An ER doctor received so many patients from an Amazon Warehouse in Allentown, PA he reported it to OSHA for unsafe working conditions.
XEANX TIL about Trap–neuter–return, a program through which free-roaming cats are trapped, spayed and neutered, then returned where they were found. Cats found in unsafe areas are relocated. Kittens are placed in foster homes. Cats with with terminal or untreatable illnesses or injuries are euthanized.
R5xB8 TIL In 1980, a Seattle businessman opened a sperm bank that only accepted sperm from Nobel laureates or 'accomplished males.' The goal was to produce genetically superior children. Many of the 218 children born under the program have been described as geniuses in a variety of fields.
OoOjX TIL that in the Stalin’s Russia, some people who were late to work three times were sent to a hard labour camp for three years as punishment