› added 3 years ago

99

TIL the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was founded by FDR's New Deal in 1933. In its 9 year existence the CCC employed nearly 3 million men, planted over 3.5 billion trees, and established more than 700 state parks. It was the most rapid peacetime mobilization in US history.

Read more beatlyzer.com

via beatlyzer.com

wLeD6 TIL that George Washington had said he would never set foot on British soil again; so some American soil was put under his Trafalgar Square statue in London to comply with his wishes.
bxM9 TIL at a Marine Mammal Institute, dolphins were trained to turn in garbage that fell into the tanks in exchange for fish. One dolphin was smart enough to hide pieces of paper under a rock, tearing off smaller pieces from the paper in order to get more fish out of it.
5YR9 TIL on July 10, 1947, Senator Glen Taylor said: “I almost wish the flying saucers would turn out to be space ships from another planet, because the possibility of hostility would unify the people of the earth as nothing else could.”
xV8oD Today I learned of dollhouse grave markers used to mark the graves of girls who died very young. Complete with glass windows and working doors, these tombstones often contained the child’s toys.
b69Bp TIL in 1944, countries agreed with the US to settle their international accounts in dollars to have gold converted at a fixed rate of $35 per ounce. In 1971, President Nixon announced the US would no longer do it, thus completely abandoning the gold standard. This was known as the 'Nixon Shock'.