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TIL the Iowa Writer’s Workshop was used to fight communism abroad and domestically from the 1940s through the 1970s, and received substantial funding from the CIA to do so.

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E1g8x Or, which pepper will make the most hilarious YouTube video when you film yourself eating it?
R71P9 TIL of Mockbusters, ripoffs of Blockbusters including the 1998 "Secret of Mulan" which ripped off Mulan and A Bugs Life, where all the characters were bugs.
R7wrQ TIL that famous "Soviet flag over Reichstag" photo, was doctored because the soldier holding the flag was wearing 2 watches. Photographer erased the watch on his right arm because he thought soldier had looted items from dead Nazi soldiers, which was a punishable offence.
0ddvj TIL Billie Holiday was arrested on drug charges in 1947 and tried in utterly bizarre circumstances. The prosecutor asked for leniency, while her defense attorney convinced her to plead guilty, assuring her she'd be sent to a hospital. Instead, the judge sentenced her to a year in federal prison.
D18dv TIL in 1915 the Boy Scouts created a secret society with its own symbols, handshakes, and private rituals. It was eventually named "Order of the Arrow" and was inspired by Native American and Masonic culture. Their society was also influenced by the poem "Hiawatha" and novel "Last of the Mohicans".