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TIL that the guitarist on Joe Cocker’s “With A Little Help From My Friends” is Jimmy Page

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kOX84 TIL that the first regiments, i.e. military units named as such with a relatively modern organization, started to be formed in the 16th century by private contractors with kings and other state entities. We still have examples of the contracts that were signed for this purpose.
168e8 TIL that the 1992 Dream Team, widely considered the best basketball team ever assembled, only practiced together for six days in Monaco before winning the Olympics. Monaco was selected in part because it would be attractive to a team with some notorious gamblers.
rv8o TIL of the word defenestrate which means “to throw (someone) out of a window.” There are two separate events known as “The Defenestration of Prague” - both times it started a war.
J1XQ4 TIL that the idea that medieval castles had clockwise spiral staircases to make it hard for attackers is mostly unfounded. Not only did about 30% of medieval castles have counter-clockwise stairs, the earliest known reference for this claim comes from a book written in 1903, with no primary sources
6EmQZ TIL in 2006, a freelance journalist from California was jailed by federal district court for 226 days. This is because he refused to turn over his videotapes of an anti-G8 protest, in which some protesters vandalized property and one of them being choked by a cop