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TIL The most Edgar Allen Poe was paid for a single work was $100 for his story 'The Gold Bug'. He earned $9 for his most famous poem 'The Raven' which made him a celebrity. He lamented, "I have made no money. I am as poor now as ever I was in my life—except in hope, which is by no means bankable"

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nKoB TIL an experiment gave mice a utopia with social roles to all, no predators and unlimited food. After population boomed reproduction gradually stopped, they became aggressive, isolated themselves and total breakdown in social structures led extinction. Researchers compared it to trends in mankind.
9Y4Xp TIL that YouTube was originally intended to be a dating site with the slogan “Tune In, Hook Up” - however its creators couldn’t find anyone willing to submit videos, even when they were offered cash.
e0gyk TIL It is estimated that over 50% of the ivory sold into China is mammoth ivory.
oRrQE TIL that Varina Davis, the First Lady of the Confederate States of America, was personally opposed to slavery and doubted the Confederacy could ever succeed. After her husband’s death, she moved to New York City and wrote that “the right side had won the Civil War.”
KVJ4 TIL that in 1948, the citizens of Nanking, including the mayor himself, raised a very large sum of money for John Rabe after learning that he was in poverty in occupied Germany, because of his efforts to stop the atrocities during the Nanking Massacre in 1937 within the Safety Zone.