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TIL That when Crystal Pepsi was released, Coca-Cola released a competitor called Tab Clear, however Tab Clear was intentionally marketed poorly in order to hurt Crystal Pepsi's image by product association. The "born to die" strategy was successful and both campaigns were dead 6 months later.

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oRlNA TIL about "The Genius Killer," Edward H. Rulloff, a serial killer with a genius-level intellect whose brain is on display at Cornell University. His last words were, "Hurry it up! I want to be in hell in time for dinner."
ZwEG TIL Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of TETRIS(1984) did not receive any royalties from one of the most popular video game titles until 1996 as the rights were owned by his employer the Soviet government.
W7YBN TIL that early in Edgar Allen Poe's writing career, he published an essay exposing a fake chess-playing automaton that was actually operated by a chess master hidden inside. The essay employs a method of deduction called 'ratiocination' which is used by C. Auguste Dupin, Poe's fictional detective.
oBRRA TIL the United States originally planned to build a canal through Nicaragua before taking over the French canal project in Panama
XExLR TIL in 1900, a sealed cave was discovered in China's Gansu province containing 1,100 scrolls and 15,000 Buddhist texts. Believed to have been sealed around 1002, the last recorded date, the cave contained lost texts and the earliest dated printed book, a copy of the Diamond Sutra printed in 868.