› added 11 years ago

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TIL Alcatraz was once the only federal penitentiary in the U.S. that provided hot showers for its inmates. Prison staff reasoned that inmates who were used to warm, comfortable water would not be able to withstand the freezing San Francisco Bay during an escape attempt.

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Mj70 TIL that Ron Howard has given each of his children the middle name of where they were conceived: Bryce (Dallas), Jocelyn and Paige (Carlyle; Carlyle Hotel, NYC), and Reed (Cross; famous London street. Reed was named after the street because according to Howard, “Volvo isn’t a very good middle name.”
gr84W TIL: One of the largest charitable donations made by a lottery winner came from a man in Canada. Two years after his wife died from cancer, Tom Crist won the lotto and donated everything to organizations fighting the disease. Canada doesn't tax winnings, so Crist donated $40 million.
v14J8 TIL the $2 bill makes up 1% of currency circulation. Its scarcity in daily use has confused some merchants who believe the bill to be fake. A 13 y/o girl in Texas was detained by Police when she tried to pay for her school lunch with a $2 bill, b/c the school’s counterfeit pen wouldn’t work on it.
jNgWQ TIL that in 2016, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that records which document Israel's arms sales to Rwanda during the 1994 genocide will remain sealed and concealed from the public.
kOYad TIL of Robert Smalls, a slave who freed himself his crew & their families by overtaking Confederate ship, CSS Planter, and sailing it north. The ship contained a code book letting them pass CSA checkpoints. He became new captain of the ship & convinced Lincoln to admit African Americans to the Army