› added 5 years ago

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TIL that General Motors chemist Thomas Midgley Jr. invented both chlorofluorocarbons and leaded gasoline, having "more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth's history."

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6LQZ TIL that in 1971, when Frank Sinatra couldn’t get a ringside ticket to Ali & Frazier’s “Fight of the Century”, he managed to get a press pass to shoot photos for LIFE magazine instead.
0wgmy TIL in 1848, the first bridge built over Niagara Falls was started with a kite competition. A boy flew a kite across to the river to the opposite bank. The line he used carried larger and larger cables across the river used to start construction of the bridge
ZvpB TIL Cleveland once released 1.5 million helium balloons. The weather kept the balloons from dispersing and the resulting chaos ended up costing the city millions in lawsuits and took weeks to clean up.
N7ZRJ TIL of Rodriguez; a US-based '70s musician, who became a construction worker after commercial failure in the US. However, unbeknown to him, he achieved cult-like status in South Africa, where both his albums went platinum. His daughter found out after discovering a website dedicated to him, in 1997.
5D1R TIL among the 10 recipients of the key to the city of Detroit were Elmo and Saddam Hussein.