› added 7 years ago

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TIL that Pope Francis and Pope John Paul the Second are honorary members of the Harlem Globetrotters

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via reddit.com

LkXmr TIL of pro-butter Senator Gordon Roselip. In a 1955 Wisconsin senatorial blind taste test Roselip preferred margarine, insisting it was butter. It later transpired that Roselip’s wife, worried about his heart, had for years been substituting yellow margarine for butter at the Senator’s dinner table.
9wBZX TIL that up until the 1970s, American insurance companies put vending machines at airport ticket counters which sold plane crash life insurance policies. This practice ended when courts started strictly enforcing the policies against the insurers.
XEl8X TIL, the city of Kazan is not only one of the oldest cities in Russia, but in Eastern Europe as well. It’s about 150 years older than Moscow. Officially founded in 1005, and became part of the largest Mongol-Tatar empire in the world, the Golden Horde, in the 13th century.
kOaE1 TIL of Sessue Hayakawa, a Japanese actor who was one of the biggest stars in 1910s Hollywood while being an early sex symbol. After growing tired of playing stereotyped roles he created his own production company, helping improve public opinion on Asians, while making a staggering $2 million a year.
meOo TIL “the last great tank battle of the 20th century” took place in the middle of nowhere in the Iraqi desert. Since there were no nearby towns or landmarks, the Battle of 73 Easting had to be named after its map coordinates.