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TIL much of activist Hellen Keller's archived material, including first editions of her books and photos of her with every living President that served during her lifetime, was lost in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center

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YevW TIL Grady Stiles, a circus sideshow attraction known as “Lobster Boy” was convicted of murder. Later in life Stiles was murdered by a sideshow performer who was contracted by Stiles’ own family to kill him.
yVAwe TIL Coney Island was at one point and island and they artificially connected it to Brooklyn in the 1920s-30s
VGr0 TIL that Salvador Dali made a painting for the prisoners at Rikers Island in NYC that hung in the prisoner dining room for 15 years, when it was moved to the prison lobby for ‘safekeeping’. In 2003, three prison guards and a warden stole the painting.
P1p5O TIL: Telecommunication companies participate in each countries' "spectrum auction" in which they bid on the right to use specific bands of the electromagnetic spectrum for a time period. In the US, the FCC has raised over $60 billion from the bids so far.
mW8E TIL Barkhad Abdi had never acted before “Captain Phillips”, was actually born in Somalia, improvised the line “look at me, I am the captain now”, and only made $65k for his Oscar nominated performance.