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JRg1 TIL the USS Pueblo crewmen stuck up their middle finger in photos when they were captured in North Korea. They said it was a “Hawaiian Good Luck sign”. Then the TIME magazine ran a photo and wrote the real explanation. The next day the Koreans found out what it meant, and the crewmen were tortured.
E1MOo TIL that blood donors in Sweden get a text message thanking them for their donation each time their blood is given to a patient. The program was started in an attempt to recruit and retain new donors.
NXeDP TIL the Space Shuttle Enterprise's Computer 2 failed on the first flight test because of bad soldering, showing that the redundancy of the backup computers worked properly.
VBlK4 TIL that when the USS Badger State sank, some sailors were lost by being attacked by albatrosses.
xVBag TIL the US has poor voter turnout as a percent of voting-age population (55.7%), but excellent voter turnout as as percent of those registered to vote (86.8%)