› added 12 years ago

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TIL There was a scam called the “Spanish prison letter,” where victims received letters claiming to be written by a previously unknown Wealthy relative trapped in a Spanish prison. the prisoner would promise to share his fortune with the victim if they could manage to send the bail money.

yV7je TIL the 10,000 steps a day goal originated from a 1960s Japanese marketing campaign for a pedometer in the wake of the Tokyo Olympics
Rm68 TIL After Fighter pilot Thomas G. Lanphier, Jr. flew the longest interception mission of WWII to shoot down and kill the Admiral responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbor, he broke radio silence to tell everybody “That son of a bitch will not be dictating any peace terms in the White House”.
vxmR TIL that mandatory right-hand traffic was introduced in Europe by Napoleon with the aim of deterring swordfighting on horseback, and because the traditional left-hand traffic was seen as aristocratic. Since he never conquered Britain, left-hand driving would remain there.
doDd TIL in 1939, Major League pitcher, Bob Feller, tested the speed of his pitches by throwing them against a racing motorcycle before radar guns were invented.
WnM4 TIL of the iQue Player, an version of the Nintendo 64 developed by Nintendo and Chinese-American scientist Wei Yen and released in 2003. The system itself was self-contained in the controller. Games for the system were loaded through a memory card and could only be bought through kiosks and online