› added 3 years ago

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TIL: Chili peppers, whose spiciness is now so prominent in Indian, Chinese, Thai, and other Asian cuisines, originated in South America and were unknown in Asia until world-wide sea trade first brought them there the mid 1500's.

R7wGQ TIL A full-time nurse named Marie Van Brittan Brown and her husband Albert invented the first home security system in 1966. She was inspired to do so because she saw how long it would take the police to arrive in her neighborhood after a crime was reported.
0w8wp TIL that kids falling victim to tampered Halloween candy is an urban myth. None of the reports have found to be true. In one case a child died from heroin found at a relative's. In another a child died after eating cyanide-laced candy from his father who'd taken out a life insurance policy on him.
R7J0j TIL that many movie studios have avoided paying taxes/royalties that rely on a movie’s net profits, by using creative methods to reduce or eliminate the reported profits, also called “Hollywood Accounting”.
96yr TIL Little Tikes, red and yellow Cozy Coupe toy car reached 6 million units in sales by its 25th anniversary in 2004, and was called the “world’s best-selling car for much of this decade” by The New York Times in 1998, outselling the Honda Accord and Ford Taurus.
Gb0g TIL that Marlboro cigarettes were originally designed for women. The iconic red stripe was intended to hide lipstick stains, thus making it appealing to women. When it failed to attract women, the company changed the filter color to a muted brown, slapped a cowboy on it and marketed it to men