› added 9 years ago

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TIL I learned the concept of the weekend is, in most part, owed to Henry Ford. Christian laborers would always request Sunday for a day off and the large Jewish immigrant population always requested Saturdays off as the traditional day of rest.

d8rgQ TIL A team of economists at NYU found that getting off Facebook appears to improve people’s lives. Users who deactivated their accounts for a month seemed to enjoy themselves more as a result, showing decreases in depression and anxiety and improvements in happiness and life satisfaction.
YwMr TIL Stephen King gave a rave review of the film “The Evil Dead”, which helped convince New Line Cinema to serve as its distributor. King called it “most ferociously original film of the year,” which attracted the interest of critics who otherwise would likely have dismissed the low-budget thriller.
RLnl TIL Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to summit Mount Everest, traveled to the North Pole in 1985 with Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. Hillary thus became the first man to complete the 3 Pole Challenge (North, South, Everest)
0rQA TIL that while viewing 1980’s The Blue Lagoon, a herpetologist noticed iguanas in the background with characteristics unseen in documented species. He then traveled to Fiji, tracked & named the Fiji Crested Iguana.
xGp7 TIL only 9 US military officers have held the 5-star rank. It was created during WW2 because US officers were often commanding allied officers of higher rank. A 5-star officer cannot retire and remains on active duty for life. It was retired in 1981 on the death of General Omar Bradley.