› added 3 years ago

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TIL Carol Burnett got her career started with the help of money from a stranger, who asked that he never be identified. (Not only has she never revealed his name, her benefactor also never told anyone else about his help, even after she became famous.)

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via reddit.com

e0kd5 TIL a lawyer used his will for practical jokes. He gave a house to 3 men who hated each other, stocks in a brewery to preachers, shares of a racetrack to each ministers "except Spracklin, who shot a hotelkeeper", and gave the rest to whoever had the most kids in 10 years.
d8jkK TIL about Hetty Green, the Witch of Wall Street. Know as "the greatest miser", she was said never to turn on the heat or use hot water, wore one dress and undergarments until they worn out, didn't wash her hands and ate fifteen cents pies. Her son lost his leg after she refused to pay.
v1dk4 TIL according to the EPA, handling most receipt paper (aka thermal paper) is likely dangerous to your health, due to the high levels of BPA, and using hand sanitizer before handling a receipt exponentially increases the amount of the chemical you absorb into your body.
X0gNj TIL that “Saab”, when used for cars, is a recursive acronym meaning “Saab Automobile AB”.
eJWg TIL Nikola Tesla created the first logic gate in 1898 when he created the first remote controlled vehicle, over 50 years before Walther Bothe won the Nobel Peace Prize for it. He reportedly told onlookers multiple times it was simple science beforehand so that they would not think it witchcraft.