› added 2 years ago

184

TIL in 1974 sales from McDonald's Shamrock Shake help fund the building the first Ronald McDonald House, which keeps families closer to their children needing hospital visits.

Read more rmhc-swva.org

via reddit.com

nWEZG TIL Wilt Chamberlain is the reason for players to stay behind the foul line when shooting a free throw. In college, thanks to his 7’ height, 7’8” wingspan, and 50” vertical, he would start from top of the key, leap before the foul line, and dunk the ball before he touched the ground in the lane.
mrNM TIL that in 1955, a Sears ad accidentally printed a wrong number for their “Santa hotline”. The number rang up a secret military phone at NORAD, meant to be used in case of a Russian attack. Children called the hotline asking for Santa Claus, and the NORAD Santa Tracker was born.
aw040 TIL "Baby Jessica", who fell down a well in October of 1987 and was rescued after 58 hours, received $1.2 million for a trust fund from multiple donations. She used part of those funds at age 25 to purchase a home, but lost most of what was left in the stock market crash of 2008.
Z8vKD TIL In December 1973, Johnny Carson made a joke about an upcoming toilet paper shortage... the talk show host’s joke was blamed for causing a nationwide toilet paper shopping spree
r5v0 TIL that “with no special skill or expertise, Greg Packer has been quoted by media outlets nearly a thousand times… Greg’s campaign to be the most quoted man in news has been so successful that the Associated Press sent its staff a memo that essentially banned interviews with him”