› added 9 years ago

381

TIL In 1960, Slinky inventor Richard James left his wife and their six children to join a cult down in Bolivia. His wife, Betty, took over and turned the failing company completely around. In 2001, Betty was inducted into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame.

Read more priceonomics.com

via reddit.com

VDpp TIL of Emmett Till, a black teenager who was murdered after allegedly whistling at a white woman. He was so badly disfigured that the only way he could be identified was through his ring. Years later, the woman in question admitted that she fabricated parts of her story.
wLyOY TIL That the fourth finger of the left hand is the ring finger because Romans believed that there was a vein that ran directly to the heart from that finger: the "vena amoris" or the "vein of love"
epmGk TIL that in competitive chess, if you want to adjust a piece that has been knocked over or jostled away from the center of its square, you use the French terms "J'adoube", which also means "I nominate (to a position)" and "I bestow knighthood upon (someone)".
wLGyP TIL 22 yr old Hilda Clayton, an Army combat photographer and visual information specialist with 55th Signal Company, captured her last photo, and the moment of her death, when a mortar shell exploded in the launch tube during a training exercise with Afghan soldiers
neoRB TIL, that few days after Chernobyl disaster, all children in Poland were given Lugol's iodine. This was one of the few cases, when Polish communist government, despite official denials of the Soviet side and against their recommendations, took action in the best interest of their own citizens.