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TIL the chicken nugget was invented in the 1950s by Robert C. Baker, a food science professor at Cornell University, and published as unpatented academic work. This bite-sized piece of chicken, coated in batter and then deep fried, was called the "Chicken Crispie" by Baker and his associates.

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16kAX TIL - JFK's Pulitzer Prize winning book Profiles in Courage was largely ghost-written by his speech writer Ted Sorensen. When journalist Drew Pearson joked about it on ABC, JFK's father, Joseph Kennedy, threatened to sue unless they issued a retraction and apology, which ABC did.
4a9J TIL A shibboleth is a word that can only be said correctly by native speakers. During WW2, American troops used the word “lollapalooza” to check unidentified people. Japanese spies would often go to areas posing as allied men, if the first two syllables come back as rorra, they would kill them.
p8GD8 TIL the founder of the Smithsonian, James Smithson, was a British scientist who willed his fortune to his nephew and in the event his nephew died with no heirs, to the US government to found an "Establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men"; having never visited the US.
wLVbY TIL There are nearly 6 million CCTV cameras in Britain, which is 1 for every 11 people. Within 200 meters of the flat in Islington where George Orwell had the idea for 1984, there are now 32 CCTV cameras.
oVEo TIL John Chambers, the make-up artist portrayed by John Goodman in the movie Argo, not only won the CIA’s Intelligence Medal of Merit for his role in helping rescue American embassy personnel from Iran, he created the pointed ears worn by Leonard Nimoy as Spock in Star Trek.