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TIL: The first wireless smart home control unit was invented in 1975. It used radio frequencies to communicate with other smart devices in the home to control things like lighting and temperature.

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XpyP TIL In the winter of 1963-64, a team of FBI agents spent their days hunched over portable record players, struggling to decode a message that threatened the morality of America’s youth. It wasn’t from the Russians or Castro, but a band of white-bread Portland teenagers called The Kingsmen.
4XPZ6 TIL there are seven species of perching birds named "attilas" after Attila the Hun (due to their very predatory and aggressive nature, despite their small size). Attilas are in the family Tyrannidae (the tyrant flycatchers).
rR7Eo TIL that the final “You’re safe now” scene in Captain Phillips was never in the script but was added on the fly and ad-libbed. The staff of the infirmary were actual crew members of the USS Bainbridge, did not know they were going to be in the movie and just reacted to Hank’s acting.
16VpV TIL citizens in North Queensland, Australia hold an annual "Toad Day Out" every March 29 where thousands of cane toads are captured and humanely destroyed inspired by the "Whacking Day" episode of The Simpsons.
nejQB TIL When Will Lee, who played Mr. Hooper on Sesame Street, died in 1982, the show had an episode where Mr. Hooper died. The writers extensively researched how to teach young kids about death. The episode aired on Thanksgiving 1983 so parents were home to discuss it with their kids. It never reran.