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TIL Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, which is considered to be the first science fiction, gothic horror novel also wrote “The Last Man”, about a global pandemic caused by a bubonic plague that devastates 21st century Europe, thereby innovating the post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction genre

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R7d1a TIL 6 American soldiers defected to North Korea after the Korean War. Most of which lived in NK for the rest of their lives while being "given" wives by the NK government along with support and housing. Some of which had children who live in NK still.
a8Y89 TIL that, as the name might suggest, Billboard magazine was originally the trade publication for bill posters and billboard installers.
BgrDx TIL a significant part of the local economy of Kinmen County is making high quality chef's knives from the over 1 million artillery shells fired on the island in the 1950s. Shells filled with propaganda leaflets instead of explosives landed whole, leaving tons of high quality steel lying around.
Brg8W TIL that Byzantium not only developed sophisticated systems for taxation, justice, administration, and military deployment, but is also rarely credited with refuting Aristotle’s theory of falling bodies, one thousand years before Galileo.
5Vrln TIL scientists found that playing music at cheese while it ferments drastically changes its flavor profile as bacteria react to music: "the cheese that was played hip-hop had 'a discernibly stronger smell and stronger, fruitier taste'"