› added 4 years ago

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TIL about Bill Bradley, an NBA all-star who won two championships with the New York Knicks (1979, 1973), only to become a New Jersey Senator from 1979-1997

EW4W TIL that Jeffrey Lee turned down $5 billion for his piece of land in Australia. The 1,228 hectar contain about 14,000 tonnes of Uranium. He is the last member of the aboriginal Djok clan and believes that there will be a catastrophe if you disturb the spirits below the earth.
neyLr TIL of Oseola McCarty, a Mississippi washerwoman who has saved $280k by retirement at age 86, donating $150k to establish and endowment for poor African American students in Mississippi
mbWY TIL that until World War II most US groceries, dry cleaners, drugstores, and department stores offered home delivery service. War-related labor shortages, and gas/tire rationing, caused most to stop; businesses found, however, that sales increased when customers had to buy in person.
6E5o8 TIL Cornelius Vanderbilt was the richest man in the world with net worth of US $215 billion (inflation-adjusted 2016). In comparison Jeff Bezos's net worth is US$137 billion (January 2019). By a 1973 family reunion, not one of the 120 Vanderbilt descendants present was a millionaire.
GYJwE TIL in 2012 there was a massive solar flare, at least as powerful as the Carrington event in 1859. It could have devastated the electrical grid and even disabled the water supply, but missed Earth by a week. The chance of another hit was 12% in the next 10 years. "We need to be prepared."