› added 1 week ago

2

TIL Polaroid sold cameras to the South African government for use in making internal "passports" for black South Africans. This practice was protested by Polaroid employees.

Read more dissentmagazine.org

via reddit.com

nW9Y TIL during Hurricane Katrina, police officers responding to reports of gunfire opened fire on an unarmed group killing one person immediately. Two brothers tried to run but were pursued and one, who was developmentally disabled, was gunned down with a shotgun.
6oX8 TIL that in 1942, 13-year-old Seaman Calvin Graham was decorated for valor in battle. Then his mother learned where he’d been and revealed his secret to the Navy.
kOMP1 TIL about industrial melanism,where darkly pigmented insects are selected over lightly coloured ones in industrial areas,because the trees are blackened by soot and provide camouflage.
7r5yX TIL that there has never been a documented case of a stranger intentionally poisoning a trick-or-treater by tampering with candy; the closest case was Ronald Clark O’Bryan, who laced his own child's candy with cyanide, as part of a scheme to claim life insurance
XEZaQ TIL that Alice, Theodore Roosevelts daughter, chewed gum, played poker, and smoked cigarettes. She also liked to carry around her pet snake in her pocketbook and display it at unexpected times.