› added 11 years ago

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TIL: Before Nazis used the salute commonly referred to as the “Hitler salute,” Americans did it while saying the Pledge of Allegiance

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696l TIL that Dole used threats of lawsuits to suppress a documentary about its workers; the director made a movie about that experience. How large companies can inhibit your freedom of speech and the manipulation of journalists.
E1NdW TIL that in 1994, the pilot of a commercial airline allowed his 16-year-old son to sit at the plane's controls during a flight. The kid touched something he shouldn't have, inadvertently disengaged the autopilot and caused the plane to crash. Everyone onboard perished.
x6rgB TIL Jerald terHorst was Gerald Ford's press secretary for only month. He resigned after Ford granted Nixon a pardon, which he found especially unconscionable in light of Ford's refusal to pardon draft dodgers during the Vietnam War
WkEjN TIL that when Tom Green won a Golden Rasberry Award for "Freddy Got Fingered", he showed up in a white cadillac, rolled out his own red carpet, told the crowd he wanted to win the award, then pulled out and played a harmonica until security dragged him offstage.
Zn7G TIL that the lead guitarist from the band Queen, Brian May, attained his PhD in 2005 in astrophysics, was Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University from 2008 to 2013, and worked with NASA on its New Horizons Pluto mission