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TIL that debunking a famed fake mechanical chess player helped set Edgar Allan Poe on the path to mystery writing

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b9mm0 Today I learned, after airspace was closed after the attacks of 9/11, 38 planes were diverted to a large dormant airport in Newfoundland Canada and the residents of Gander in Newfoundland welcomed in nearly 7,000 people into their homes and schools to stay while they where stranded for 6 days.
loJma TIL Keanu Reeves often foregoes some of his paycheck so that producers can bring on other notable actors. On The Devil's Advocate, he reduced his salary by a few million dollars so that they could afford Al Pacino, and he did the same thing on The Replacements to be able to work with Gene Hackman.
wLEG7 TIL that after we die and our heart stops beating and our body moving our brain still works and we may even be conscious enough to hear our own death announced by doctors.
59wk TIL the whoopee cushion was invented by Elagabalus, a 14-year-old Roman Emperor who often used it at dinner parties. He was assassinated at the age of 18.
Br1re TIL humans are the sweatiest primates alive. We have up to five million sweat glands producing a maximum of three gallons of sweat per day. The production of sweat glands is inversely related to the production of hair, and the evolutionary loss of our hair is connected to our success as a species.