› added 5 years ago

576

Today I learned Martin Van Buren (the 8th president on the United States) was the first American citizen to be president

Read more history.com

via reddit.com

WkNP4 TIL Harvey Ball, the graphic designer who designed the yellow smiley face icon in 1963, was only paid $45 for his work. The Smiley Company, which licenses the image, made $419.9 million in 2017.
lwg7 TIL of Sgt Earl Hale. While taking six SS officers prisoner, one slashed Hale’s throat. He survived and remained in the European Theater. Later, General Patton himself would berate him for being out of uniform until he produced a doctor’s note excusing him from wearing the required tie.
xxoD TIL of Tim Jenison. A dude from TX who may have rediscovered a lost, elegant technique that might explain how the 17th century painter, Vermeer, was able to paint with incredible realism.
XlLQ TIl wood frogs can freeze solid for up to 8 months. They thaw in the spring with all normal function restored (just in time to bang). Scientists still don’t understand the mechanism that restarts the frogs’ hearts.
Q6ee TIL a German unit in civilian clothes invaded Poland on August 26th, 1939 to capture a railway tunnel, unaware that the German invasion of Poland had been postponed.