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TIL: There are coffee houses in Russia where food and drink are free but you pay for time

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69ppJ TIL during the 1995 Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett, (ballooning’s oldest aeronautical race) a balloon was shot down by a Belarusian helicopter gunship, killing the two men piloting it
6K7Y TIL: the U.S. captive tiger population of 5,000 exceeds the total world population of wild tigers.
j6wov TIL the phrase "That's a spicy meatball!" is actually from a 1960's Alka Seltzer commercial
rNp6y TIL that Fyodor Dostoevsky had a crippling addiction to gambling. He went bankrupt multiple times due to this habit, and one of his novels, "The Gambler", was written exclusively to pay off his debts. Once, his financial situation was so dire his wife was reportedly forced to pawn her underwear.
0pk5 TIL that the Smithsonian was created from a donation of a wealthy Englishman that had never once set foot on American soil - and he also never wrote about or discussed the motives for this bequest.