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TIL the first manned balloon flight in the United States would have failed if the pilot and the passenger had not removed all extra weight from the craft including their clothes and the contents of their bladders.

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WkXgo TIL that the English word for "alphabet" comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, "alpha" and "beta". The biblical phrase, "alpha and omega", meaning "beginning and end", comes from the first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet, "alpha" and "omega".
Z88dY TIL there is no law against public photography in Canada; no one can ever be arrested for the simple act of making a picture or film, unless other laws are being broken in the process. Police on duty also have no reasonable expectation of privacy
wLBv7 TIL That smiling in public is frowned upon in Russian culture. Excessive smiling is seen as a sign of dishonesty, insincerity, or even stupidity. Russians also tend to not smile in photographs for this reason.
xVdQb TIL of the ‘Window Tax’, where people were taxed based on the number of windows they had on their houses. This was used in the 18th century as a simple method to calculate tax obligations. However, many people bricked up their windows, leading to health problems.
9YDyp TIL professors of universities during the Vietnam War inflated students' grades in order to help them avoid the draft.