› added 5 years ago

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TIL the opossums are different from possums. Opossums live in North America, while possums live in Australia, and are closely related to kangaroos. Also: the "O" in Opossum isn't always silent.

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oRPMW TIL that an attempt was made to blackmail The Duke Of Wellington, by threatening to reveal his love affair with a prostitute in a book. Wellington just told them to go ahead and publish it.
LkEGr TIL the FCC prohibits the phrase "Jesus Christ" from being said on network TV as an exclamation/expletive; you can say "Jesus", you can say "Christ", but you can't say "Jesus Christ" unless he's literally on screen as the man from the Bible. The term "goddamn it" is also banned from U.S. network TV.
XpNE TIL Mary Anderson, inventor of the modern windscreen wiper was told “we do not consider it to be of such commercial value as would warrant our undertaking its sale”, when she tried to sell her patent. Many company’s went on to implement her device after her patent was expired.
pQo4 TIL in the Winter War, the Soviets, while bombing the Finns, claimed they were air-dropping food to the “starving people of Helinski”. The Finnish people dubbed the Soviet bombs “Molotov bread baskets”, and in return called their firebombs Molotov cocktails, as “a drink to go with the food.”
B6yD TIL: Of Penny4NASA a campaign being run to get NASA’s budget increased to at least 1% of the US Federal budget