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TIL an atheist man started a faux pet-rescue service that would pick up your pets in the event of the rapture

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69yv7 TIL In the 1950s, Mr Potato Head originally used real potatoes. In the 60s government regulations affected the sharp pieces needed to stick into the potatoes, leading to the introduction of the plastic head. This caused parents to no longer finding rotting food under their children’s beds.
KV5J TIL in 1978, a US Navy ship was attacked by an unknown species of giant squid. Nearly all of the cuts found on the sonar dome contained remnants of sharp, curved claws found on suction cups of squid tentacles. The claws were much larger than those of any squid that had been discovered at that time.
v1414 TIL of Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, an American businessman who died when the RMS Lusitania sank in 1915, after giving his lifejacket to a young mother and her baby. He knew that he could not swim and that there were no other lifeboats available at the time. His body was never recovered.
d87 Today I learned cicadas have evolved 13 and 17 year breeding cycles, because prime integers rarely sync with other integers making it rare that they will breed in sync with predators.
woNoY TIL about ''execution of nine relations'' from china in which a criminal's spouse, kids, grandkids, parents, grandparents ,cousins, aunts and uncles, inlaws would all be killed. Usually only used in cases of treason though sometimes this was used for crimes as mundane as libel.