› added 12 years ago

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TIL when child actor Jackie Coogan turned 18 he found out all his money ($68 million) had been spent by his mother who argued “No promises were ever made to give Jackie anything. Every dollar a kid earns before he is 21 belongs to his parents.” Coogan’s Bill was passed to protect child actors

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N79Ge TIL about Percy Ross, who for 17 years used a syndicated column called "Thanks a Million" to share his fortune with people who wrote in with good sob stories and in 1980, he offered $50 million to Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini in exchange for the U.S. hostages.
wMAo TIL a fig tree tricks a certain species of wasp to pollinate it, sends it down a small passage in the fruit where its wings are ripped off, after which it is digested by enzymes. Figs eat wasps.
mxnxx TIL that 7 Up launched a variation called "dnL" (the 7up logo turned upside down) and was basically the opposite of 7 Up: instead of a caffiene-free clear soda in a green bottle, it was a caffienated green soda in a clear bottle, and instead of lemon-lime the flavor was lime-lemon.
OogKR TIL that before Paris was liberated from the Nazis, Hitler ordered military governor Dietrich von Choltitzthe to demolish the Eiffel Tower and other major landmarks. He refused this direct order, and surrendered to the Allies instead, saving the tower.
ERkW TIL Astronauts, during spacewalks, face the danger of their fingernails detaching from their nailbeds, a condition called “fingernail delamination”