› added 9 years ago

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TIL in 2007, 17-year old Nataline Sarkisyan Died after Cigna Health Insurance denied a life-saving procedure, despite doctors pleas that she receive treatment.

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yWeM TIL In 1988 Ian Mckellen visited Michael Howard, then Environment Secretary, to lobby against Section 28. Howard refused to change his position but did ask him to leave an autograph for his children. McKellen agreed, but wrote, “Fuck off, I’m gay.”
loyEA TIL the infamous "Year without a Summer" after the Tambora eruption in 1815 led directly to the invention of the bicycle, as people were forced to eat horses and other farm animals due to failing crops. They were called Laufmaschine or "dandy horses" and propelled by Flintstone-style foot power.
aXy9 TIL that Lord Collingwood, Nelson’s second in command at the Battle of Trafalgar, would carry a pocket full of acorns on walks in the countryside, planting them as he went so the ‘Navy would never want for oaks to build the fighting ships upon which the country’s safety depended.’
5PRP TIL “It’s A Wonderful Life” was classified as Communist Propaganda by the F.B.I. because it “deliberately maligned the upper class, attempting to show the people who had money were mean and despicable characters.”
8JGK TIL Koko, the sign language fluent gorilla, likes seeing human nipples. There have allegedly been lawsuits filed against Koko’s trainer, Francine Patterson, by caregivers who have felt pressured to show Koko their nipples against their will.