› added 9 years ago

230

TIL it is still illegal to join a Communist Party in the USA

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b6XMZ TIL George Orwell was born in British India, in the current state of Bihar
XEX58 TIL that many higher end, larger camera lenses are white instead of black due to issues caused by temperature fluctuations. As a lens heats in sunlight, it expands, affecting focus of the glass elements. This is particularly problematic for larger lenses. The white color helps reflect light/heat.
Eg8rW TIL that the record for the longest gap between release and reaching number one on the Billboard charts was set by the Mariah Carey song "All I Want for Christmas Is You", which first reached number one in the United States 25 years after its release.
OoJaX TIL:Pinbal was banned from the early 1940s to the mid-1970s in most of America's big cities. It was a game of chance, not skill, and so it was a form of gambling. In fact, one of the key parts of pinball: the flippers, weren't invented until 1947, five years after most of the bans were implemented.
K1A6 TIL that the First Gulf War (in 1991) technically never ended — there was just a cease-fire. The UK used this legal loophole to justify entering the Second Gulf War (in 2003).