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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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1awW4 TIL that in 1982, a man died while vandalizing a saguaro cactus for fun. He shot the cactus repetitively and then went up to poke it to try to get it to fall over. Instead, the 500-pound saguaro arm fell and killed him.
Za1o TIL That Mao ordered the Chinese to eradicate mosquitos, rats, flies, and sparrows. Because the sparrows ate seeds, he felt they were eating unearned food, thus, they represented Capitalism. They killed so many sparrows the Eco imbalance contributed to a famine that killed 20 million people.
mxE5Y TIL a 14 year old boy in China was killed anally after the gas cylinder in the base of his office chair (the part that allowed the user to adjust the seat up and down) exploded and sent chunks of the metal seat up his rectum, causing him to bleed to death.
Yj6B TIL that Mozart made a poem about farts
ZKE4 TIL that George Lucas trademarked the word “Droid” and Motorola had to pay him for every phone sold under this moniker.