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TIL that in Oklahoma there exists a ghost town so polluted from lead mining that leftover minerals have caused the rivers to turn red. Children who went swimming in the arsenic-filled water thought they were just getting sunburnt - in reality, they were being covered in chemical burns.

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NX0b8 TIL Chinese Tencent QQ holds the Guinness World Record for the highest number of simultaneous online users on an instant messaging program with 210,212,085 users online on July 3, 2014.
LkZaZ TIL the unfortunately named "Ayds" dieter's chocolate considered a name change when the AIDS crisis hit. Executives resisted with one saying "The product has been around for 45 years. Let the disease change its name." - The name was later changed to "Diet Ayds" before being pulled from the market.
Gxl5 TIL: Redheads can’t absorb sufficient Vitamin D due to low concentrations of eumelanin in their body so instead their body can cleverly produce their own Vitamin D when exposed to low light conditions.
kJ1Yg Til in the original Charlie and the chocolate factory ran into controversy with the NAACP over its depictions of Oompa-Loompas as being of "black pygmy descent" with an illustration to go along t after hearing the criticism Dahl decided to change it to be more fantastical.
vPb1K TIL professional wrestler Haku is widely considered by many in the industry to be the toughest and greatest legitimate fighter in the industry. In one encounter, a drunk fan called wrestling fake and pushed Haku, who bit his nose off in response