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TIL Sanora Babb was writing a book about the Dust Bowl but John Steinbeck stole her notes to write The Grapes of Wrath, and as it was felt the market couldn’t support two books about the subject, her book remained unpublished until 2004.

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Y4Xd TIL that in order to prevent Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht from deleting or encrypting his hard drive during his arrest at a public library, agents pretended to be quarreling lovers to distract him, at which point a USB drive was inserted that cloned his hard drive
JY0WB TIL Rapper Ronald Herron AKA 'Ra Diggs' began posting videos on YouTube bragging about beating a state murder charge and additional crimes. Herron was subsequently charged federally and sentenced to twelve life terms plus 105 years
l7OYa TIL that the plot of “West Side Story” was conceived by Jerome Robbins in the 1940s when his then-boyfriend, Montgomery Clift, suggested a musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet but with gangs in New York. The idea stuck with Jerome, who called Clift a “theatrical genius” early in their affair.
oBGyo TIL Chamillionaire, the one-hit wonder rapper behind "Ridin' Dirty," decided there was no money in music and became a tech investor, which has made him an actual multimillionaire
6EVZl TIL The FDA tried to regulate vitamin supplements in high doses (>150% DV) due to potential health risks. Regulations were fought by the Vitamin Industry, who then funded a bill preventing all FDA regulation of supplements, which has been law since in 1976.