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TIL During the Depression, Post Toasties (now Post Consumer Brands) decided to use cartoon animals on its boxes and paid its cartoonist $1.5 million in the first year. That artist was Walt Disney, and he used the earnings to build the Disney empire.

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N7X8b TIL there is an argument that The Beatles were the major influence is the downfall of the Soviet Union, in that they alienated a whole generation from their Communist motherland, becoming another religion to tens of millions of Soviet youngsters.
d8emQ TIL the Finns sarcastically dubbed the Soviet cluster bombs "Molotov bread baskets" in reference to Molotov's propaganda broadcasts. When the hand-held bottle firebomb was developed to attack Soviet tanks, the Finns called it the "Molotov cocktail", as "a drink to go with the food".
d81kB TIL that cocaine can legally be given by doctors in the US to help with nosebleeds
9Y4Kr TIL about Khaled al-Asaad, a Syrian archaeologist who helped evacuate a museum ISIS was approaching and was captured by ISIS; he was beheaded because he wouldn't tell his captors the location of hidden ancient artifacts. Today is the four-year anniversary of his death.
D1aev TIL: Continental Cablevision broadcasted a T-shirt offer only to viewers who were obtaining the pay-per-view signal illegally. This was done by encoding the signal in a way only illegal decoders could decode. Those who responded were caught stealing cable.