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TIL that the United States deployed foxes painted in glowing radium-based paint during WW2 to exploit Japanese fears of 'Kitsune', mythical trickster foxes, to help them win the war. Only during testing in Chesapeake Bay did they realise that paint washes off in water.

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ne4VW TIL the US government invested $90,000 promoting Vidalia onions as part of a promotion with Shrek (with tax payer money)
Yp7m7 Consider the autoclave, which scientists use to sterilize tools and which issues scalding steam to do so. Or consider the heat gun, which is used to dry glassware and to warm distillation devices. It can also ignite anything flammable that gets too close. Glass containers in a vacuum can implode, spraying shards everywhere. Centrifuge rotors can fail, causing explosions that throw shock waves throughout a lab filled with chemicals. Steel vessels built to contain liquids and gases at hundreds of pounds of pressure per square inch can rupture, hurling metal at lab workers.
9RZX TIL that the British exclusively swam breaststroke in competition until the 19th century. In 1844, a Native American came to London and won a competition swimming front crawl (freestyle), a stroke never seen by the Western world, who then regarded it as “un-European”.
VRkm TIL Bruce Banner was renamed to David Banner in the 1978 TV-series The Incredible Hulk because CBS thought Bruce sounded too gay.
epgDD TIL In January 1962, the Flying Wallendas were performing a pyramid walk in Detroit Michigan, during the performance, one of the acrobats made a small movement causing them to collapse the pyramid and fall (they didn't use a net). Two acrobats died and one was paralyzed.