› added 10 years ago

105

TIL each pawn in chess used to have its own name, after one of several commoners’ occupations.

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QJGEM TIL despite being a massive success in Japan, Dragon Quest I sold so poorly in America, it was given away free with subscriptions of Nintendo Power. The promotion was so successful, Nintendo employees who sent out the game received a shirt saying, "I survived the 1990 Dragon Warrior mailing."
0wpov TIL Boris Yeltsin’s first trip to a Texas grocery store in 1988 shattered his belief in communism. He told his fellow Russians in his entourage that if their people, who often must wait in line for most goods, saw the U.S. supermarkets, "there would be a revolution."
v1wm7 TIL When a billionaire resident dies, states reap an average $165 million windfall from estate taxes
Bmvr TIL That a “Hearing Protection Act” has been introduced which would remove the heavy taxes and wait periods for firearm suppressors, letting them be purchased like guns.
mOjR TIL a man from Texas died after attempting to play Russian roulette with a semi-automatic pistol. He was apparently unaware that semi-automatic pistols automatically insert a cartridge into the firing chamber when the gun is cocked. He was posthumously awarded a Darwin Award.