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TIL In December 1941, Franklin Roosevelt became the first President to use an armored vehicle. Originally belonging to infamous gangster Al Capone, the car was seized by the Treasury Department in 1932 on an income-tax evasion charge.

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5Rg8 TIL that slaves were forbidden from owning drums, as they were used to communicate. New Orleans was the only city where slaves could legally own them. Hundreds of slaves were allowed to gather each Sunday to trade, sing, dance, and play music. This led to the birth of Jazz.
EgnW TIL there is a vinyl player that uses laser beams to read the sound, thus no deterioration to the record.
nwkB TIL the inspiration for “Nacho Libre” was Fray Tormenta, a Mexican priest who turned to wrestling to raise money for an orphanage, but he himself got the idea and name from a 1963 film…about a priest who turns to wrestling to raise money for an orphanage.
VBwGZ TIL that traditional lacquer is made w urushiol sap, aka the rash-causing toxin in poison ivy & poison oak. In fact, "urushi" (as in "urushi-ol") is the Japanese for the Chinese lacquer tree (also toxic) & an English word for lacquerware. They all fall in the genus Toxicodendron, or "poison tree".
ko1 TIL that, in 1958, an economic campaign to modernize China resulted in the deaths by starvation of +18 million people. During this time, China was actively exporting food to Africa and refusing any foreign food aid.