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TIL Jack O'Lanterns started in 18th century Ireland and were originally carved into turnips. These turnips were used to ward away the evil spirit of a blacksmith named Jack. When the Irish came to America, turnips were hard to find, but pumpkins weren’t, and thus the pumpkin carving became tradition

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m1ajP TIL of Derinkuyu, an ancient underground city in Turkey. 18 stories deep, it housed 20,000 people, protecting them from attacks for months. It had stables, schools & wineries, and was used for millennia til the 20s. It was found by a man whose chickens kept going in a crevasse & never coming back
LQ1YQ TIL That the white dried dog poop on lawns of the 70s and 80s was related to excess calcium in dog foods at the time. Less commercial bone meal in todays dog food recipes makes it virtually a thing of the past.
11pX TIL of Kazimierz Piechowski, an Auschwitz prisoner who learnt that his friend was to be executed, and thus escaped with him and 2 other prisoners by disguising themselves as SS, stealing an SS car, convincing the gate guards that they were SS and demanding they open the gate, and simply drove off.
VMGXB TIL that more modest two-piece swim suits were popular in the US before the government ordered a 10% reduction in fabric used in woman's swimwear in 1943 as wartime rationing.
8eKQL TIL that Bernie Madoff was treated as a hero in prison. The swindler wrote in a letter to family, "I am quite the celebrity, and am treated like a Mafia don. I can't walk anywhere without someone shouting their greetings and encouragement, to keep my spirit up".