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TIL of Dr. Atlas Fredonyer, a Swiss Doctor who was convicted of incest and pardoned by California Governor Leland Stanford and died after surgery to remove a 16-ounce bottle lost inside his rectum after an attempt to alleviate a severe case of diarrhea. Fredonyer Pass, California is named after him.

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b6y4E TIL that Australia actually exports sand to Saudi Arabia. This is because maritime or beach sand is coarser than desert sand. Coarse sand j's needed in construction which effectively makes desert sand completely useless.
9KbM TIL the prune industry asked the FDA to relabel prunes as “dried plums” because “prunes” weren’t selling. It worked.
GYxR4 TIL that the forward speakers in a movie theater are actually behind the screen. The screen has about 5500 tiny perforations to allow the sound through. Typically there are speakers left, center, and right to better represent the sound source from on screen out to the audience.
loljr TIL Gary Webb, the reporter from the San Jose Mercury News who first broke the story of CIA involvement in the cocaine trade, was found dead with “two gunshot wounds to the head.” His death, in 2004, was ruled a suicide.
XEvZj TIL prosecutors considered, but ended up not, calling a husband's parrot as a key witness in a wife-husband murder case after the bird kept repeating "don't shoot" in the victim's voice; wife found guilty anyway.