› added 11 years ago

86

TIL that the cell nucleus is probably an ancient virus that invaded a primitive cell and remained there symbiotically.

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a8jn9 TIL that bowling balls used to be made with asbestos in an effort to dispose of by-product waste from brake pad manufacture.
VBBb4 TIL: Between 1976 and 1977, Salvador Dalí signed 17,500 blank sheets of paper for tarot prints that had not yet been printed. This realization led to a huge increase in forgeries from printers who claimed to have used pre-signed paper for their "authorized" prints after Dali was bedridden.
YpmwP TIL Motorola was the first company to produce a handheld mobile phone. The first call was from Martin Cooper (Motorola) to his rival Joel Engel (Bell Labs). The phone weighed 1.1kg, had talk time of 30 minutes and took 10 hours to recharge.
RmJj TIL that in the 1942 Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston, at least 300 people lost their lives because the doors opened inwards. This prompted the regulation that all doors in a public building must open outwards.
rvjo TIL of a family falsely accused of abusing their son. Following british law, all their kids were forcibly put up for adoption. They are not allowed to see them, even after being proven innocent. When she got pregnant again, they had to move to Ireland so their child would not be taken away at birth.