› added 6 years ago

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TIL Hans van Meegeren is a master forger known as a national hero in the Netherlands for selling his fake art to Nazis during WW2. After the war, people believed the paintings were real, and he was charged as a collaborator. To prove his innocence, he painted a new forgery at his trial. It worked.

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X06ZX TIL that The Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University is the only international organization that is devoted to the research of chile peppers.
mknx TIL: The “&” used to be the 27th letter of the alphabet. It got its name from children slurring the ending of the alphabet song together so “and per se and” became “ampersand”
W7BLo TIL all Canadian First Nations people with at least 50% native ancestry cannot be denied entry to the US and automatically qualify for green cards
VKYp TIL of the Fukushima 50. During the 2011 earthquake in Japan, 50 workers at the nuclear power plant would not leave even though 750 others had been evacuated. For four days they kept the reactor from melting down until backup arrived, saving countless lives.
xVdB1 TIL that the spacesuits for the first moon landing were made by Playtex, a company famous for making bras and girdles. NASA had staged a competition to see who could make the best suit. Playtex officials essentially had to beg to be allowed to submit a suit design into the competition.