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TIL In 1987 Paul Tudor Jones believed the stock market to be overvalued so he took an very risky short position. On Oct 19, 1987 the market crashed hard in what's now known as Black Monday. While many were wiped out, Jones walked away with $100M. His trade became legendary on Wall Street.

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PY8Xw TIL of John Carpenter, the first person to win on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire". He didn't use any Lifelines until the final question when he called his dad only to say that he didn't actually need any help, and just wanted to tell him that he was about to win a million dollars.
ANgdn TIL not only was Neil DeGrasse Tyson at the WTC on 9/11, but with his camcorder he captured everything from the 2nd plane hitting to both towers collapsing. While he has released screenshots, he has declined to publish the full tape, feeling it was too intimate to be tastefully shown to the public.
5Yyxn Today I learned that Taiwan has 5 branches of government. Aside from Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches there's the Examination Yuan which validates qualifications of civil servants and the Control Yuan which is an investigative branch that audits, evaluates and prosecutes govt officials.
XEBJR TIL of a Congressman who, while defending a murder suspect, accidentally killed himself while recreating a scenario where the victim could have accidentally killed himself. The defendant was acquitted
wL1AM TIL straight razor manufacturing almost came to an end, but demand increased after the 2012 James Bond film Skyfall.