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TIL Harriet Tubman, the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad, relied on celestial navigation to guide herself and others along their route. They used the Big Dipper (which resembled a drinking gourd) to find the North Star, and they followed that beacon to freedom.

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ZOjB TIL that Bill Watterson, the creator of “Calvin and Hobbes” came off a 20 year hiatus from drawing comics to illustrate 3 comics for “Pearls Before Swine.” The originals went on to sell for $74,090 for Parkinson’s disease.
grDob TIL about the medieval tradition of "Risus Paschalis" or "Easter Laughter" where priests would insert raunchy humor into their Easter day sermons. This was to honor Jesus's resurrection which they viewed as a practical joke God played on the Devil.
rRA8M TIL that the box office flop "Idiocracy" (2006) was released in as few theaters as possible by 20th Century Fox so as to not offend the negatively portrayed advertisers in the movie. Fox then planned, and succeeded, in recuperating its budget by purposefully making the movie garner a cult following
PVLL TIL Twitch (the video game streaming platform) was originally called Justin.tv which was Justin Kan live streaming his whole life with a camera clipped to his hat and a 30lb backpack that held the computer that would send the data over a cell phone network.
LQEvp TIL in regards to Catholicism, that middle names have a purpose. It was thought that demons needed to know your full name in order to possess you, and thus having a middle name meant it was more difficult; as people rarely use them.