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TIL Saskatchewan was a hotbed of LSD research in the 1950s with a 50% success rate in treating alcoholism and and architect using LSD used the infamous hospitals to make future institutions more comfortable for the mentally ill.

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5vPP TIL: A South African doctor tried to create a virus that would only affect black people.
DQvep TIL of "The Year 2440", an 18th century novel considered one of the first sci-fi novels and the first one set in the distant future. It became one of the most popular and most controversial books of its era, it was banned in many countries and the spanish king personally burned its copies
gdAy TIL the NES light gun worked by detecting flashes of light on your tv screen. When the trigger was pulled, the tv flashed all black for a single frame, then all black with the target white for one frame. Also it only works with CRTs.
7rmWL TIL that Leo Tolstoy, Jules Verne, and J.R.R. Tolkien all spoke Esperanto, a 'universal' language created in the late 19th century.
wLrmW TIL that although it's called the "San Francisco Bay Area", the city of San Francisco isn't even the biggest city in that area. San Jose, its neighbor to the South, is more populous and nearly 4 TIMES larger in area.