› added 8 years ago

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TIL Reed Hastings was inspired to start Netflix after a $40 late fee on a VHS copy of Apollo 13.

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0d69M TIL Starbucks is named after the first mate of the Pequod in Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby-Dick
NXbx8 TIL Walmart pulled a "pregnant" Midge doll, who came with baby Nikki inside her magnetic womb and was marketed as Barbie's best friend, after complaints from customers which included: She did not (initially) come with a wedding ring, she promoted teen pregnancy, and was packaged without husband Alan
A19l TIL Leonard Cohen’s manager took $5 million from him and sold the rights to his music over time to pay her credit cards among other things leaving him with $150,000. He never retrieved the money and basically said he hoped she would learn from it and be a better person.
PYrEe TIL that Queen Victoria was irritated at being, as a mere Queen, notionally inferior to her daughter Princess Victoria, who was the wife of the reigning German Emperor and hence an Empress - so the British government created for her the title of Empress of India
VQJB TIL, while Samuel Morse was in New York, he received a letter that warned of his wife’s illness. Morse left for home but arrived to find his wife already buried. Heartbroken that for days he was unaware of his wife’s illness and death lead him to research and patent the telegraph 22 years later.