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TIL that once officially labelled as retarded, Russian orphans are warehoused for life in psychoneurological institutions, receive little to no education, and are often physically restrained and neglected.

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VBpjk TIL that Planets don't orbit exactly the sun's center — they orbit a common center of mass in between their and the sun's center called the barycenter. The barycenter of Jupiter and sun actually just outside the sun's surface!
69vRJ TIL in 1965, Air India airlines commissioned Salvador Dali to design an ashtray for the airlines. Dali requested an elephant as fees so the airline flew a two year old elephant from Bangalore to Geneva. After Dali lost interest, the elephant was taken to the Barcelona Zoo in 1971.
MR4W TIL In 2003, a 727 that once flew for American Airlines disappeared from Angola and prompted a worldwide search by the FBI and the CIA. The plane has never been found.
KOmKa TIL Thomas Mundy Peterson of Perth Amboy, New Jersey was the first African-American to vote in an election under the just-enacted provisions of the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution. His vote was cast on March 31, 1870. He was also the city's first colored person to serve on a jury.
Qeoe TIL A customer had to be dragged from a burning Hamburg, Germany sex shop by firefighters when he refused orders to evacuate. He had shut himself inside a private booth to watch a film (“Throbbin Hood”) and was heard complaining (while coughing from smoke inhalation) that he hadn’t “finished yet”