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TIL When Kurt Vonnegut served in WW2 he was captured by Germans during the Battle of the Bulge. He was a POW in Dresden and survived the bombing of the city by hiding in a meat locker in a slaughterhouse where he was imprisoned. This inspired him to write the anti-war novel Slaughter-House Five.

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M7VpK TIL Missouri, United States has a Single Man Tax (bachelor tax): Single men between the ages of 21 and 50 must pay a $1 annual tax. The law was enacted in 1820, presumably to encourage more men to marry.
OjJ7 TIL that Mark Twain was born shortly after a visit by Halley’s Comet, and he predicted that he would “go out with it”, too. He died the day after the comet returned.
6vJX TIL that the largest bald eagle nest on record was 9.5 feet wide and 20 feet high. It weighed more than two tons.
XLZQ TIL CDs are 74 minutes long because the president of Sony wanted to listen to Beethovens 9th symphony without interruption
neR6W TIL Paganism was still practiced in parts of Ireland as late as the 1850s. The idol , Naomhóg was worshiped in the Inishkea Islands and was credited with power over weather, health and potatoes. It was allegedly thrown into the sea by a catholic priest called ‘Big Paddy’ O’Reilly in the 1890’s.