› added 10 years ago

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TIL ancient Egyptians used tamed and trained cheetahs for hunting; this tradition was passed on and kept alive until the 20th century by e.g. Indian royalty

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WWbB TIL of “project sound” A car suspension system by Bose. Over-engineered to the point of being deemed unviable commercially, it outperformed everything on the market.
1L54 TIL that Apollo 12 astronaut Alan L Bean accidentally destroyed the mission’s TV camera by pointing it at the sun, left several rolls of exposed film on the moon by mistake, and was hit on the head by a 16mm film camera when the crew splashed down on Earth.
e0L94 TIL Thomas Midgley Jr, who helped invent leaded petrol, once poured the lead additive over his hands and inhaled its fumes to prove it was safe. He was later diagnosed with lead poisoning... for the second time.
oRm5o TIL of The Business Plot of 1933, a failed attempt to overthrow FDR and install a dictator. Led by a covertly bankrolled Wall Street coalition of affluent businessmen
ZeAQ TIL that there is a raisin farmer in California being sued by the US Government for hundreds of thousands of dollars for selling too many raisins. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court and is now awaiting a decision.