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TIL that Mansa Musa, Emperor of the Malian Empire, gave away so much gold to the poor that he devalued the currency and devastated the economy of the Middle East and North Africa for years

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4Ne5 TIL Potato chips were invented in 1853 when a cook got fed up with a customer sending his fried potatoes back to the kitchen for being too soggy. To spite the customer, he sliced the potato as thin as he could, deep fried them to hell, and dumped piles of salt on them. They were instantly loved.
LkmV0 TIL Dubbed as one of the worse sales promotions in history, Hoover nearly went bankrupt after promising UK customers a flight to the USA and back if they spent £100 or more on their products. Hoover cancelled the promotion before many customers received their tickets and some even took legal action.
x660b TIL about Chesterton's Fence, i.e. the principle that you should not make reforms to a system without first understanding the current state of affairs present in that system.
ONVa TIL The United States attempted to buy Greenland in 1946 for $100,000,000 ($1.3 billion today).
VBEM8 TIL King Philip IV of France expelled the Jewish people from his kingdom only for his son, Louis X to later ask them to return when the loss of many tradesmen and educated men hurt the kingdom's economy. Seven years later Charles IV would once again expel the Jewish people.