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TIL Ninepin bowling (with the pins arranged in a diamond pattern) was outlawed in Connecticut and New York during the early 1800s because it was associated with heavy gambling. This led to the addition of a tenth pin (arranged in the now-common triangular pattern) to circumvent the law.

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8oEP TIL that Simon & Garfunkel’s first album was so unsuccessful that the duo split. Their producer took one of the songs from the album, overdubbed and remixed it without their knowledge or permission, and after this version of “The Sounds of Silence” became a hit, they reunited for four more albums.
9YlLB TIL that Michael Connor Humphreys, who played Forest Gump as teenager, was initially supposed to learn how to talk like Tom Hanks. Hearing this, Hanks sat down with Humphreys and decided that he would talk in Humphreys Mississippi accent instead. He still has tapes of him and Humphreys practicing.
JOM4 TIL A Canadian was the commander who captured John Wilkes Booth, not an American
5YPJn TIL that after moving to Springfield, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln and his best friend Jonathan Speed shared a bed for four years. Later, during the Civil War, Lincoln shared a bed with his bodyguard David Derickson any time Mary Todd Lincoln was absent from the White House.
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