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TIL the world-famous Zildjian musical instrument company, which started in 1623 in Turkey and moved to the US in 1929, is widely recognized as the oldest family owned business in America.

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via reddit.com

R75pw TIL that the eleven points of the maple leaf of the Canadian flag has no special significance: the number and arrangement of the points were chosen after wind tunnel tests and the chosen pattern is the least blurred under high winds.
kJk7E TIL of Mona Parsons, the only Canadian female civilian to be imprisoned by the Nazis. She married a Dutch millionaire and aided downed Allied airmen in WWII till captured in 1941. Sentenced to death, she appealed it and was sentenced to life in prison. She escaped in 1945 and reached Canadian troops
VBRYQ TIL Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was the first man to die during a space-flight. He volunteered to pilot a hastily built and fatally flawed spacecraft alone in order to save the life of the man who would replace him if he refused — his close friend and first man in space, Yuri Gagarin
GANGg TIL that Kenny Rogers was singing at a private event of a hedge fund manager and asked to repeat 'The Gambler's over and over, being offered additional pay per song. After a dozen times and having earned $4 million, he refused to sing.
pY4wG TIL Harvey Ball, the man who designed the popular smiley face graphic picture, never applied for a trademark for the smiley image and only earned $45 for his work. His son once said: “He was not a money-driven guy. He used to say: ‘Hey, I can only eat one steak at a time, drive one car at a time.'”