› added 9 years ago

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TIL that 6 of the most famous speeches in history; Eisenhower’s “military–industrial complex”, JFK’s “ask not what your country can do”, “we choose to go to the moon”, Mandela’s “I am prepared to die”, JFK’s “ich bin ein Berliner”, and MLK’s “I have a dream” were made within 2 years of each other.

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OOa7 TIL a new ant species was discovered in 2012 in Manhattan and is called the ManhattAnt.
VM1nQ TIL that the territory of Nevada was rushing to become a state in time for the 1864 presidential election. After writing a state constitution with only days to spare, they sent all 16,543 words of it to Congress via telegram. Transmission took 2 full days and cost $4,303.27 (over $67,000 today.)
9wPmm TIL that character actor Harry Dean Stanton, who acted in over 200 movies ('Alien', 'Paris Texas'), started as an uncredited cameo on Hitchcock's 1956 'The Wrong man'.
JBk4 TIL that Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy, managed to become one of Syria’s Prime Minister’s best friends. While “touring” the Golan Heights, he expressed concern that the soldiers guarding fortifications are exposed to too much sun and had trees planted, which the IDF used as targeting markers.
ZDjR TIL that the saying “when it rains, it pours” actually comes from the tagline of Morton Salt, whose ionized salt didn’t clump in damp/humid weather