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TIL the first thing ever bought and sold across the Internet was a bag of marijuana. In 1971 or 1972, students at Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory used ARPANET—the earliest iteration of the Internet—to arrange a marijuana deal with their counterparts at the MIT

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J1rbv TIL Jefferson Davis attempted to patent a steam-operated propeller invented by his slave, Ben Montgomery. Davis was denied because he was not the "true inventor." As President of the Confederacy, Davis signed a law that permitted the owner to apply to patent the invention of a slave.
VMMbD TIL there are more tigers living in captivity in the US (at least ~5000, likely much more) than there are living in the wild globally (~3200). Of those ~5000, only ~6% live in zoos and accredited facilities. The rest are privately owned, many living in residential backyards.
woZa7 Today I learned that Anglerfish mate by fusing together, the small male will attatch to the larger female, basically becoming a parasite, not all do this
L7aQ TIL The Army pressured the filmmakers of Black Hawk Down to change the name of the war hero portrayed by Ewan McGregor because the real life soldier is serving a 30 year prison term for raping his six year old daughter
M84a TIL that during a film sequence of Top Gun, an aircraft carrier captain changed the ships course and altered the lighting of a shot. Director tony Scott was told it would cost $25,000 to change its course. He quickly wrote a check, the course was reverted,and got 5 more minutes to get his shot.