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TIL a politician made up the U.S. state name “Idaho” after meeting a girl named Ida. He falsely claimed it was a Native American term.

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kObrE TIL that when Marie Curie ran out of radium for her research in 1921, a women's magazine lead a crowdfunding campaign and raised $100,000 to buy her some more.
BrLML TIL that the infamous Heaven's Gate cult supported themselves by doubling as a moderately successful web design firm. Their clients included the San Diego Polo club and a Christian music store.
KO0xG TIL marine biologist, Stephen Hillenburg, created an educational comic book about tide pool animals called "The Intertidal Zone" to help educate his students. In later years after becoming an animator he began developing those same characters and concepts for what became "SpongeBob Squarepants."
v1gWx TIL that Alfred Hitchcock was known to play elaborate pranks on his colleagues. One night he hosted a dinner party and dyed all the dishes blue because "there aren't enough blue foods."
Z8LaR TIL that Ed Camull, co-founder of Pixar and former president of Walt Disney Animation Studios, had Aphantasia - a mental condition which meant he could not voluntarily visualize mental imagery. He had no visual imagination.