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TIL that Britain went through a Gin craze in the 18th century spearheaded by a Dutchman. We get the word ‘Gin’ from the Dutch word for Juniper and it also spawned the expression ‘Dutch courage’

wEGM TIL In 1995, current US House Speaker John Boehner was caught handing out cheques from the tobacco lobby on the floor of the House of Representatives just before a vote on cutting tobacco subsidies.
9YQw7 TIL Ferrari only produced 400 of their iconic 2005 Ferrari Enzo. The first 399 were sold in the public market, with the final 400th being gifted to Pope John Paul II which was then auctioned off for charity for $6M to help the victims of the 2005 tsunami in Southeast Asia.
AdPx TIL that a Roman general named Marcus Crassus created Rome’s first firefighting crew with a team of 500 men. His team would respond to a fire, and then Crassus would force the owner of the burning building to sell him the property at an exorbitantly low price, or let it burn to the ground.
BgJyk TIL about Marina Abramović's 1974 performance piece Rhythm 0. She stood still for six hours and allowed the audience to use her body without consequences. They could use any of 72 objects on her, from harmless to dangerous ones. The interactions started gentle but quickly escalated into violence.
pYdW8 TIL as part of its foreign policy the Nixon administration actively portrayed the president as an out of control madman to try and convince hostile nations that he was capable of anything at anytime. Including nuclear war. Nixon dubbed this strategy "Madman Theory".