› added 9 years ago

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TIL that in 1978 France rolled out a pre-World Wide Web online service (MiniTel) that gave it’s users access to online shopping, search engines, cybersex, message boards etc … France Telecom only retired the service in 2012 after 30 years and 800 000 units still in use.

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bOR0 TIL that all of the 90’s Disney movies are from a period called the Disney Renaissance, which was considered to have started with The Little Mermaid(1989), and ended with Tarzan(1999), wherein Disney made $3.9 billion dollars worldwide.
60dl TIL a massive solar flare missed the Earth by nine days on July 23rd 2012. Estimated cost of damage was $2.7 trillion dollars, and estimated recovery time was four to ten years.
v1On7 TIL that after the U.S. Civil War, the U.S. filed financial claims against Great Britain, claiming that their support for the Confederacy prolonged the war. One Senator demanded a payment of $2 billion, but offered that the U.K. could just turn over Canada as payment instead.
QJGZp TIL Aeschylus, a Greek playwright, died in 455 BC after an eagle dropped a tortoise on his head, mistaking his head for a rock (some eagles kill tortoises this way, breaking them open). Aeschylus was spending most of his time outside to avoid a prophecy that he would die from a falling object.
rRAW0 TIL of a "Productivity Paradox" that came into effect in the 70's and 80's, that despite the rapid growth of technology at the time, the growth rate of productivity actually declined.