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TIL that in Thailand, white elephants are considered sacred and are a symbol of royal power, with all those discovered presented to the king - and that the status of kings has been evaluated by the number of white elephants in their possession. The previous king had 21, an unprecedented achievement

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rRnJx TIL citizens of the Dutch city Zwolle are colloquially known as Bluefingers due to the 1682 sale of the town church's bells to the town of Kampen. After finding the bells too damaged for use, Kampen paid Zwolle entirely in pennies; fingers in Zwolle turned blue after counting so much change.
loKw1 TIL the band name Smashing Pumpkins doesn't mean breaking a gord; the "Smashing" in it is an adjective not a verb. So smashing as in "fantastic".
ADneo TIL that in February 1970, an amateur photographer was taking photos around an airport in Sydney, Australia. It was only after the film was developed that he realized he captured a stowaway's final moments as he fell out of the wheel well of a plane taking off and fell 56 meters to his death.
0wMXp TIL The movie "Tootsie" was based on a nickname given to Dustin Hoffman by his mother.
7l5x TIL the unofficial fastest recorded time to drive from New York, New York to LA, California was 28 hours and 50 minutes in a 2004 Mercedes-Benz CL55 AMG