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TIL America's first recorded murderer was John Billington, an original Plymouth colonist, also a signatory of the Mayflower Compact. He shot a young man who had recently migrated to Plymouth. The motives behind the murder were never recorded so it is still unknown.

9gBp TIL Before the introduction of the catacombs, there was once a cemetery so overflowing with bodies in central Paris they made soap with the fat of the corpses and had houses with bones protruding from the rooftops of adjacent houses.
7r7VP TIL Parks & Rec was originally planned to take place in the same world as The Office (US). The plan was that the copier machine at Dunder-Mifflin would break down, be recalled by the manufacturer, and then be fixed and shipped out to Pawnee, Indiana, where the show would pick up.
OGew1 TIL British writer Victoria Coren Mitchell saw a therapist to address her fear of flying, but the therapist later died in a plane crash.
1aPkd TIL: Archaeologist Alexander Peev was executed by firing squad in 1943 on suspicion of sending a coded message to the Soviet Union. It was actually an ancient inscription he wanted Russian archaeologists to help him interpret. The text remains undeciphered.
b9X09 TIL The New Hampshire Astronomical Society donated over a dozen telescopes to local public libraries around the state so they can be put into circulation just like a book. Their 4.5-inch telescopes shows the Moon and deep sky objects in far more detail than common "beginners" telescopes