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TIL that the city of Basel, Switzerland has many statues and fountains of basilisks. In 1474, the city put a rooster on trial and sentenced it to death, fearing that it had laid an egg which would hatch a basilisk.

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via reddit.com

nWGno TIL that the inventor of Pringles is buried in a Pringles can. Fred Baur, who designed the iconic Pringles can, requested that some of his ashes be buried in one after he passed. His family honored this quirky wish with a Pringles can placed in his grave
P1p5O TIL: Telecommunication companies participate in each countries' "spectrum auction" in which they bid on the right to use specific bands of the electromagnetic spectrum for a time period. In the US, the FCC has raised over $60 billion from the bids so far.
VdP4 TIL that during the 1890 census, Minneapolis and St. Paul kidnapped each other’s census takers to keep either city from outgrowing the other.
lgBA TIL that a loan of £1000 at the rate of 6% p.a. was given by a UK school to the city of St Albans in 1722. St. Albans City council, despite acknowledging the loan, has not made any repayments on it. As of 2012, the debt stands at £21,800,000,000 (21.8 billion GPB).
nGb9 TIL that one of the largest bats in the world, the golden-capped fruit bat, with a wingspan of 5.6 feet, does not posses echolocation. It instead relies on its keen senses of sight and smell to locate food, usually traveling more than 25 miles for it. The species is now facing extinction.