› added 1 month ago

5

TIL C.W. McCall was just a character created to sell bread.

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LGLv TIL in 2002 a few NASA interns stole nearly all of the moon rocks collected from all Apollo missions, then had sex on them
KYZ6E TIL of the ancient law of General Acerage. If a ship carrying cargo needs to jettison some of its load to save the rest, that loss is to be shared proportionally among interest holders and the ship owner. First written into law in 800BC, it continues to be declared in maritime emergencies.
jNM1X TIL that in 1993, comic For Better or For Worse ran a story about a gay character coming out to his parents. It was criticized by hundreds of fans, over 100 newspapers cancelled the strip over it, and even parts of the gay community were against it.
x64R5 TIL in 1978, a researcher played a deceased elephant’s calls from a hidden speaker. Her family responded by frantically searching and calling out for her, with the daughter continuing for days. Moved by their grief, the researcher decided never to repeat the experiment.
kOoDd TIL while working at a railway, Richard Sears' station received a shipment of gold watches but the jeweler refused the shipment. Sears got the watches at a reduced rate (a common scam) and sold them to his coworkers who needed to keep accurate time. The success lead to his first mail-order catalog.