› added 4 years ago

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TIL that Arthur Raymond Chung - President of Guyana, South America from 1970 to 1980 - is noted for being the first ethnically Chinese head of state in a non-Asian majority country.

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lo8Jr TIL that the first person to die during a space mission was Vladimir Komarov in 1967. He knew the capsule was unsafe and that he would not be returning alive so he demanded an open casket funeral to send a message to the government officials who had caused his death
gGDy TIL that shops in Japan place orange balls of paint near the register as an anti-crime device. The staff throws the ball at the criminal, which explodes on impact and stains the criminal with distinctive orange paint for the police to easily identify.
e07Mn TIL that tons of wreckage from the USS Arizona, removed during Memorial construction in 1962, were dumped on the ground in Waipio Peninsula near Pearl Harbor, and remain there today.
mxN5R TIL that in 1982, Indian composer-musician Charanjit Singh combined electronic disco and classical ragas. In the process, he created an anachronistically modern sound -- anticipating the Acid House genre almost a decade before its existence.
m1RNO TIL that the can-can was originally considered scandalous, and attempts were made to suppress it and arrest performers. The dance involves high kicks, and women’s underwear at the time had an open crotch.