› added 2 years ago

72

TIL of the United States military training film A Welcome to Britain. Released in 1943, it educated GI’s about the less ethnically segregated UK and was narrated by Burgess Meredith.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

VRm4 TIL that Pets.com, considered the most disastrous failure in dotcom history, went from IPO to liquidation in just 268 days, with $300 million of investment capital vanishing with the company’s collapse.
R7pL9 TIL that since 9/11 more than 37,000 first responders and people around ground zero have been diagnosed with cancer and illness, and the number of disease deaths is soon to outnumber the total victims in 2001.
MKo7 TIL Oscar the Grouch (SESAME STREET) used to be orange. Jim Henson decided to make him green before the second season of Sesame Street. How did Oscar explain the color change? He said he went on vacation to the very damp Swamp Mushy Muddy and turned green overnight.
vPGG8 TIL about the Brazen bull a torture device used in Ancient Greece. The condemned were locked inside the stomach, a fire was set under it, heating the metal until the person inside was roasted to death, pipes would transfer the screams through the bull's nostrils, as if the bull was bellowing.
6VjX TIL During the great depression the government would hire people to do pointless jobs for the purpose of decreasing unemployment. Some jobs include digging holes, then re-filling the holes, and chasing pigeons away while holding a balloon. These pointless jobs are called “Boondoggles”