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TIL In the 1960’s, Solomon Burke was once booked to sing at a KKK rally. It was only when he showed up that the organizer noticed that he was black.

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QJN69 TIL of "soft despotism": a state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. It gives people the illusion that they are in control, when in fact they have very little influence over their government.
p8QX4 TIL As late as 1000 B.C. lions idled on the banks of the Nile—and some even lounged in palaces as domesticated pets for the royals. Very rare lion mummies discovered in Egypt, until today, only one lion mummy had been found by Egyptologists.
oVaW TIL that Bikram Yoga was invented in the 1970’s by a man called Bikram Choudhury, who decided to copyright poses developed from those available for free for centuries. He also compares himself to Jesus and sues everyone who tries to “copy” his business.
v15NB TIL in 1987 a virus called Stoned was spread widely across Australia and New Zealand. The virus would display "Your computer is now stoned. Legalise Marijuana" in infected boot sectors of infected floppy disks and master boot records of infected hard disks.
JYvek TIL about the Berkeley Pit, a 270-metre deep US "lake" filled with liquid toxins and acid. Thousands of geese died upon landing in it one night; today, birds are scared off the site with gunshots. The state of Montana charges every visitor to the lake 2 dollars. It has its own gift shop.