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TIL 800 years before the Black Death, the same bacteria cause plague in the Byzantine Empire. At it's peak, the plague killed 5,000 per day in Constantinople.

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p81Z TIL Joseph Stalin was a huge fan of American western movies, and would often ring up his underlings at all hours of the night to make them come and watch cowboy movies with him.
wowYP TIL that Machu Picchu is earthquake resistant. The Incans created an engineering technique called ‘ashlar masonry’, where rocks are cut to fit perfectly together without mortar. This allowed the stones to move in its place during an earthquake, before settling back in their original positions
kOyV1 TIL Even after being falsely prosecuted in the Dreyfus Affair Alfred Dreyfus returned to the French army and fought in World War One. Dreyfus fought at the Battle of Verdun and rose to the rank of Lieutenant-colonel.
OGZ1a TIL the idiom “the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray” originates from a Scottish poem in 1786: “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley, / An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, / For promised joy”
GYRGj TIL Jeff Daniels was only paid $50,000 for the movie "Dumb and Dumber". Jim Carrey was paid $7 million.