› added 8 years ago

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TIL The founder of Mother’s day was so disgusted with its commercialization that she collected petitions to rescind Mother’s Day and spent the rest of her life trying to abolish the holiday she founded, only to end up in a sanitarium supported by contributions from the hated Florists Exchange.

Xw58 TIL out of the 92 Navy SEALS that died since 2002, 21 were killed during training (many by parachute accidents)
kJOGd TIL that all 9 dogs who played the role of Lassie, a female dog, were male dogs due to the fact that female collies loses a lot of hair when they're in heat 3 times a year.
womZ1 TIL in the 1980s, NASA had a 1-900 number which charged $2 for the first minute and $.45 for each additional minute. It allowed callers to listen in on a mission status report and mid-flight press conferences, and horrifyingly, thousands of them heard the Challenger explosion in real time.
9jVp TIL Cuba gifted East Germany a small island during the Cold War as a symbol of friendship. Many have claimed that the island is now the last official territory of East Germany as it was not mentioned in the Treaty which united East and West Germany in 1990
gMwvW TIL of the decoy effect. When there are only two options, people may have trouble making a choice. An unattractive third option, a "decoy", can change the perceived preference between the other two. Companies take advantage of this effect to sell its products by cleverly pricing its products.