› added 5 years ago

103

TIL the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M) was founded in 1902 when five men believed they had secured a valuable corundum mine. They later realized their mineral holding was entirely anorthosite, a mineral devoid of corundum and useless to their venture.

Read more news.minnesota.publicradio.org

via reddit.com

d8RXZ TIL In 2012, The City Of Brussels Erected A Life-Sized Statue of Jean Claude Van Damme.
OGA5X TIL that Michael Jackson's father was quite critical of his appearance when he was a child, calling him "fat nose." This led to Michael having four rhinoplasties and spending the rest of his life worrying about how his body and face looked.
8aJgK TIL The idea of frequently washing your hair only became popular in the 1970's after a big marketing push. Prior to that people washed their hair once a week or not at all.
6AxX TIL that the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade purposely reroutes to try and avoid unauthorized CBS cameras
B9AK TIL The last surviving member of the crew that bombed Hiroshima hosted Japanese students at his home and commented “The Japanese you know today are not the Japanese we fought during WW2. The Japanese today are nice people.”