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TIL that hot dogs are responsible for majority of toddler choking deaths. The hot dog has just the right size and consistency to perfectly block the airway.

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via reddit.com

nWe7P TIL in 1762, a Korean king confined his son ("Crown Prince Sado") in a rice chest in the heat of summer and starved him to death. It is said that the crown prince turned lunatic under his father's extremely high expectations, became bipolar, and sadistically murdered people
Wk8rL TIL that ELO's first album, which was titled 'The Electric Light Orchestra', was released in the USA under the name 'No Answer'; someone had called a United Artists Records executive to ask about the album name, and after failing to reach a contact, wrote 'no answer' in his notes
d15r TIL Yew trees can exceed 1000 years, are often found in graveyards, and have a long association with death; they’re deadly poisonous to humans, with no known antidote. However, the tree is used to make taxanes, which are used to fight cancer.
m1vrE TIL the CIA funded the exhibition of modern art in Europe in the 1940s-60s in order to wage a cultural war on the Soviet Union. Via the Rockefeller Foundation and MOMA, the US government funded abstract expressionist exhibitions believing that they represented a counterpoint to Soviet realism style
X04jE TIL That Aspirin was initially Byer's trademark name for acetylsalicylic acid that scientists at the Bayer company began studying in 1897. They received a patent for Aspirin in 1900.