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TIL that the ancient fabric called Dhaka Muslin from Bengal was the most valuable fabric on the planet. It was so transparent that English women wearing it was accused of appearing in public naked. Currently no one alive knows how to make this fabric due to the exploitation of East India Company.

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kOwb7 TIL of John Von Neumann, a mathematician polymat that invented computers (the architecture in every digital computer today), a precursor theory of DNA without having been a biologist, played a pivotal in creating the Atom bomb, and laid out the mathematical framework for quantum mechanics.
gk74 TIL in 1997, an “anonymous party” sold 1.5 million shares of Apple stock, causing Apple to hit a 12-year low in stock price. That event lead to then-CEO Gil Amelio stepping down and placing Steve Jobs as new CEO of Apple. That anonymous party was later revealed to be Steve Jobs himself.
p8yvG TIL there was Nazi German - Soviet parade in September of 1939. It marked the withdrawal of German troops to the demarcation line secretly agreed to in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
6E1DJ TIL that Michael Crichton, author of Jurassic Park and many more novels, graduated Harvard Medical School with his MD. He never obtained his medical license (after deciding he hated the system and culture), and instead pursued writing.
9YQAD TIL that until the 1890s, there were people in Britain whose job was being a village’s “sin eater.” When someone died, you paid a sin eater to come over and eat a 'funeral biscuit' that had been placed on the dead body, taking on their sin in the process.