› added 9 years ago

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TIL that five days before the bombing of Hiroshima, the U.S. Army Air Force dropped one million leaflets over the city and 33 other Japanese cities warning that those cities were going to be destroyed

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9YNR7 TIL that an American minister travelled to Britain to learn methods to teach the deaf. After being denied by the British, he learned his methods from the French. As a result, ASL has a 60% similarity to French sign language, and is almost unintelligible to a British sign language user.
V984 TIL On August 31, 1986, five-year-old Levan Merritt fell into the gorilla enclosure and lost consciousness. Jambo stood guard over the boy when he was unconscious, placing himself between the boy and other gorillas in what ethologists analyze as a protective gesture.
Eg4PW TIL that Norman Lear has produced, written, created or developed over 100 shows, including "All in the Family", "Sanford and Son" and "The Jeffersons". He's now 100 years old, and still actively producing television shows - most recently, a revival of "Good Times".
9Y8Yr TIL the Mormon Church justified slavery, fought against Civil Rights, and excluded black people from the priesthood, due to a belief that “black skin was a curse,” an idea that “was not officially contradicted until 2013.”
XOZE TIL that Houdini hated psychics & before his death he came up with a code word for his wife. In the event of his death she was supposed to go to as many psychics as possible to see if they could guess the word. None were able, thus proving Houdini’s point.