› added 8 months ago

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TIL the Apollo 11 astronauts couldn’t get life insurance (for some reason), so they signed autographs for their families to sell in case they didn’t return.

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1847 TIL Two baby girls were switched at birth in 1931 at the Leiden University Medical Center. Suspicions didn’t rise until two decades later, when the girls met at a wedding and wondered at their mutual likeness to each other’s family.
v1kw8 TIL about the D.C. sniper attacks. A coordinated sniper attack in 2002, in which the shooters used a “ rolling sniper nest” in the trunk of a car. This resulted in 10 people losing their lives and 3 critically injured.
gRP9 TIL that cake mixes used to not require the addition of an egg. Women felt guilty for getting more credit than they deserved for just adding water to mix, so they stopped using the product. When the mix began requiring the addition of an egg, product sales soared.
kJ8dm TIL about the birthday effect. A statistical phenomenon where an individual's likelihood of death appears to increase on or close to their birthday, variously attributed to alcohol consumption, psychological stress, increased suicide risk, and other factors.
16pAP TIL: of Adam Worth, who fought with the Union in the US Civil war, then went on to a life of crime in Europe, where he earned the nickname “the Napoleon of Crime”, and served as the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes’ great nemesis James Moriarity.