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TIL Billiards tables are sometimes referred to as pool tables because back in the 1800’s men used to pool together bets for horse races. These “pools” were in special rooms called poolrooms where owners placed billiard tables to pass the time.

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8aRZX TIL In 1956 writer Harper Lee received an envelope from family and friends with a year’s salary in it. It read “You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas.” She wrote To kill a Mockingbird which won the Pulitzer prize and sold over 30 million copies worldwide
b9Ap4 TIL part of Washington, DC was returned to Virginia in 1846 in a process called "retrocession," but the sections donated by Maryland have resisted the idea of being reunited with Maryland.
ADpLo TIL of the Wifatch computer virus, that instead of installing malicious software actively protects infected units from attack.
1adZV TIL Mosquito Hawks are actually Crane Flys who don’t eat anything at all.
Yp61Z TIL John Houbolt, who was an early supporter of Lunar Orbit Rendezvous for the Apollo missions, co-wrote a letter concerned the first Shuttle launch would be lost due to the heat tiles being damaged. Such an issue resulted in the loss of shuttle Columbia in 2003.