› added 11 years ago

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TIL than in the 1950s, just over one in ten 14-16 year olds agreed with the statement “I am an important person.” By the late 1980s, that number had risen to 80 per cent.

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YpwwA TIL that in 1969 a representative of the Soviet government contacted an American diplomat in Washington to ask how the US would feel if the Soviets were to attack and destroy China's nuclear installations. The American at first thought this was meant as a joke.
J19b8 TIL that the "dog" in hot-dog originally referred to a dachshund — the short-legged, long-bodied dog breed. German immigrants in the 1800s sold sausages they called “dachshund sausages” because of their shape. One day, a cartoonist who couldn’t spell “dachshund” just called it a hot dog 🐶🌭
QNDa6 TIL that there was an English painter who was also a chimpanzee named Congo, who produced 400 pieces of art by the time he turned four. His style was called "lyrical abstract impressionism" and Pablo Picasso was reportedly a fan of his work.
XEYoP TIL after a secret program conducted by the US in the Marshal Islands in the 1950s, parts of the island complex still have radiation higher than Chernobyl or Fukushima even so many decades after the now declassified experiment
lJZa TIL a pair of twins, June and Jennifer, spoke in a cryptic language only to each other for 30 years. After 14 years in a mental hospital, one of the twins was found dead, with no apparent cause. The living twin finally spoke: “I’m free at last, liberated, and Jennifer has given up her life for me.”