› added 11 years ago

697

TIL that on this day in 2000, the US national debt was dropping.

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via reddit.com

GYVWG TIL Bill Haast began extracting snake venom at 15 years old. He founded the Miami Serpentarium and injected himself with venom for 60+ years. His blood was used to save 21 snakebite victims. He created a venom serum to cure polio. He was bitten over 170 times and lived to be 100.
WkM4X TIL racecar driver Joie Chitwood acted as a car safety consultant, intentionally crashing more than 3,000 vehicles for subsequent investigation. Highways are safer today because of these tests.
4XPxR TIL arnold schoenberg suffered from triskaidekaphobia the fear of the number 13 as he lay in bed, he died that night simply because of the fear, at the age of 76 / 7+6= 13 and on friday the 13.
N7ge TIL: George Lucas was sure Star Wars was going to flop, so he made a friendly bet with Stephen Spielberg: That if Close Encounters of the Third Kind made more money than SW, he would get 2.5% of the profit for all time, and vice versa. Spielberg still gets enormous, grudging checks today.
e0xBL TIL the film industry relocated from New York to LA to escape from Thomas Edison's patents.