› added 10 years ago

86

TIL that many laundry detergents use chemical trickery to make clothes appear whiter. They contain agents called optical brighteners that glow blue under florescent and incandescent light, making clothes appear whiter than they actually are. Incidentally, this trick does not work under LED lights.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

78pDb TIL after Taft's election as president, there was an attempt to replace the Teddy bear with Billy the Possum as the new popular plush toy. All because William Taft was very fond of opossum meat.
5YkNn TIL The Hunt for the Titanic Was Secretly a Hunt for Fallen U.S. Nuclear Submarines
1anW8 TIL a revolt of textile workers in 14th century Florence led to the son of a washerwoman becoming president when he entered the palace barefoot and overthrew the oligarchic government. For 4 years the republic was ruled almost entirely by middle class artisans and shopkeepers
ANNew TIL James Madison blamed his 1777 campaign defeat to a less principled opponent on his decision not to provide free liquor to voters on Election Day.
J171v Today I Learned that the first large-scale use of Gutenberg's movable type press was to print thousands of "Indulgences" for the Catholic Church