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TIL that life in Puritan New England was so hard that children who were abducted by Native Americans often refused to come back

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OG9w1 TIL in 2012, Choi Gap-bok, a Korean yoga master escaped from prison by squeezing through the food slot at the bottom of his cell door. The slot was 5.9 inches tall and 17.7 inches wide. Choi applied skin oil to his body and slipped out while three guards were sleeping.
kOK97 TIL that Jamie Foxx got the stage name of Jamie when he was starting out in doing stand up comedy and found out that female comedians usually got called up first on stage to perform. By choosing a more feminine sounding name, he tricked the promoters into putting him higher in the performing order.
0d5WM TIL that the financial failure of a Scottish colonial venture in what is now Panama was one of the major factors that led to the formation of the United Kingdom in 1707.
Y7VaW TIL that the Giotto spacecraft, whose aim was to study Halley's comet as it passed close to Earth in 1986, takes its name from the Italian painter Giotto di Bondone, who in 1305 depicted the star of Bethlehem as a comet in painting his Adoration of the Magi. Halley passed close to Earth in 1301.
9YQp7 TIL Oxford Deans called their Head Woodsman noticing decaying oak beams built in 1460 to see if there was any oak to replace them. He said "We've been waiting for you to ask about that" - A grove of oak trees was planted with the specific purpose of replacing them hundreds of years later.