› added 11 years ago

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TIL that when medieval Islamic scholar al-Biruni was trying to determine the exact position of qibla (the Muslim direction for prayer), he realized that a vast span of Earth’s land was unaccounted for in the modern maps of the time. This turned out to be the American continent.

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XExyE TIL at US Supreme Court, the most junior associate justice is charged with menial tasks, such as answering the door of conference room, serving beverages and transmitting orders of the court to the clerk.
v1YwD TIL until just recently, Nintendo of America had complete ownership of the Seattle Mariners baseball team.
oByOr TIL that legendary crime fighter Eliot Ness was promised by Al Capone that $2,000 would be on his desk every Monday morning if he turned a blind eye to his gang's bootlegging activities ( $33,000 a week in 2018 adjusting for inflation). Ness refused the bribe, was penniless when he died in 1957.
8978 TIL that the members of blink-182 (around the time of Enema Of The State) had incorporated under the name Poo Poo Butt, LLC. because “it would be funny to have our accountants, managers and attorneys having to say that over the phone every day.”
OKvL TIL of MOVE, a Black Power movement that was involved in several standoffs with police. There was a 1978 incident where an officer was shot and killed, resulting in life sentences for nine members, and a 1985 incident where police bombed their compound, destroying 65 homes and killing eleven people.