› added 12 years ago

175

TIL that the pledge of allegiance in schools was conceived by a businessman who wanted to sell flags.

Read more historyofthepledge.com

via reddit.com

d88YB TIL That kangaroo leather is illegal in California
grbMX TIL a group of rats were put on trial in 16th century France for destroying barley crops. Their lawyer, Barthélemy de Chasseneuz, successfully defended them.
OGyrg TIL Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols and actor Philip Seymour Hoffman both died of heroin overdoses within just a five-minute walk from each other in New York City, and exactly 35 years to the day apart.
x9pb TIL Charlie Chaplin would have canned The Great Dictator had he known about the actual horrors of the Nazi concentration camps at the time. “Had I known, … I could not have made fun of the homicidal insanity of the Nazis.”
wLkDE TIL the US entered the Vietnam War after an American naval ship was attacked by the North Vietnamese in the Gulf of Tonkin... except the attack never happened. There wasn't even a North Vietnamese ship in the area.