› added 4 years ago

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TIL in 1956 the Soviet Union had considered a plan to build a 55-mile dam across the Bering Strait, pump warm water into the Arctic Ocean, and thaw Siberia.

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kJnJE TIL, Robert Todd Lincoln (son of Abraham Lincoln) once provided legal assistance to George Washington Custis Lee (son of Robert E. Lee) in a legal case against the US Federal Government regarding Lee’s family mansion
Q6Ve TIL that unlike James Bond, real MI6 agents don’t need a license to kill because everything they do outside the UK is already illegal. The UK spy agency makes Bond-like gadgets for operatives but, as one said after retiring, they “frequently fail to work upon arrival at our destination”.
a8kr0 TIL: James Burkey Belser was an American graphic designer responsible for designing the nutrition facts label the FDA mandates on all packaged foods that is the most frequently reproduced graphic in the world. He previously designed law firm logos before taking the pro bono project that brought fame
d1yQ TIL that the refrain “when one door closes, another opens" is actually an Alexander Graham Bell quote which he followed by saying “but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”
5V5WQ TIL that in 2009 a man checked into a hotel in Sligo, Ireland, gave a fake name and paid in cash. He then got rid of all his possessions and sadly completed suicide. He had cut out all the tags from his clothes so nobody is even sure what country he was from. The case is still unsolved today.