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TIL A an American school board tried to ban a book called “Making it with Mademoiselle”, as they believed it was inappropriate. They hadn’t bothered to research it. They reversed their decision after the book turned out to be a how-to pattern book about dress-making.

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gkOD TIL a New Jersey politician was indicted for accepting $360,000 in bribes. The politician went so far to avoid his conviction that he faked his own death by friends saying he swallowed pain pills before a scuba dive and ‘never resurfaced’. He was found 2 years later and arrested while scuba diving.
neodY TIL 3 of the last 4 new elements added to the periodic table were discovered by a woman named Dawn Shaughnessy. In total, people who are part of the lab she runs have discovered 6 of the 26 new elements added since 1940.
Wk7X9 TIL despite a 1998 GAO poll for the upcoming $1 coin warning that 65% of the public preferred the Statue of Liberty design and 27% preferred Sacagawea, the U.S. Mint decided to open a competition for the Sacagawea design. The coin was ultimately rejected by the public.
rNWLd TIL in 1996, a 21-year-old man burst into a New Zealand radio station, took the manager hostage and demanded that Kermit the Frog's rendition of Rainbow Connection be played.
9ygr TIL Hitler did not learn of the allied D-day landings as they happened but only until he woke up at noon the next day. His staff did not dare wake him up because he had been up til 3am chatting with friends at his residence.