› added 4 years ago

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TIL There was an Anti-Mask League, an organization formed to protest the requirement for people in San Francisco to wear masks during the 1918 influenza pandemic.

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N7p4M TIL that pencils are yellow because in the 19th century, the best graphite came from China. Because yellow was a royal colour in China, pencil companies began to colour their pencils yellow to show both high quality and an association with China.
p8eXO TIL a Dutch student was suspended from school in 2008 after uploading a video showing him slapping his penis against the Taj Mahal. The act of slapping one's penis against an object is called "swaffelen" and was voted word of the year in 2008 in the Netherlands.
kOJo1 TIL Salvador Dali's (Full name: Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech) parents told him he was the reincarnation of his brother who died 9 months before he was born. Dali believed this to be true, stating "We resembled each other like two drops of water, but we had different reflections."
WkPyY TIL that a town called Hot Springs, NM changed its named to "Truth or Consequences" after the host of a radio show called Truth or Consequences made an offer for free publicity of a city if they changed their name to the show's name.
x6e6b TIL the Library of Congress has a “free to use and reuse” section featuring millions of photos, books, films, and sound recordings that are either in the public domain, have no known copyright, or have been cleared by the copyright owner for public use.