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TIL from 1879 to 1902, Thérèse Humbert passed herself as the sole heir of American billionaire Robert Crawford, borrowing against the value of this inheritance. When the safe containing the "evidence" was opened under court order in 1902, only a brick and a coin were found

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yQNMJ TIL That Americans sought comfort TV after 9/11 and watched so much Food Network that the station had to restructure itself to appeal to a general audience. This led to the creation and subsequent rise of reality cooking shows like Chopped and Iron Chef USA.
QJyO6 TIL Sears once offered mail order houses. You'd select your house then Sears would ship it to you by RailRoad and you'd assemble it yourself based on the instructions
1XoX TIL in 2007, a Bowhead whale was discovered with the end of a harpoon left embedded in its neck from a previous hunt. It was found that the harpoon tip was originally manufactured in 1890, indicating the whale had survived a human attack more than a century ago.
R55yl TIL Claire Chennault, leader of the Flying Tigers and eventual 14th Air Force Commander, built a brothel. "His men were going to visit brothels, regardless of what the rules said," and it was "better to have his "boys" visit a brothel that was regularly inspected to reduce venereal diseases."
6A0l TIL that the term “debugging” actually originated, and was popularized by Grace Hopper when her associates discovered and removed an actual moth that was stuck inside a relay of the Harvard Mark II, impeding its performance.