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TIL tattoos in Japan (Irezumi) were banned from 1868-1948. Traditional Japanese tattoos were associated with the yakuza (Japanese Mafia) as they were used to mark the skin of outlaws. To this day they retain a stigma of criminality and many businesses still ban customers with tattoos.

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kMR1 TIL Smile Mask Syndrome is a psychological disorder in which subjects develop depression and physical illness as a result of prolonged, unnatural smiling. First described in Japan in 1983, this is attributed to the great importance placed on smiling in the Japanese service industry.
D1ZND TIL Buster Keaton's famous stunt when a building facade collapses on him, with an open window fitting perfectly around his body, used no trickery. The facade weighed two tonnes, and the mark on the ground telling him exactly where to stand to avoid being crushed was a nail.
8ooX TIL there was a prison warden so loved that when he retired, 100 inmates pooled together their money to throw him a party.
5VQEP TIL that Fort Douaumont, the largest and most important fort in the French defense system during World War I, fell to a force of 98 Germans in 3 days in February 1916. It took the French army 302 days, and an estimated 337,000 casualties to retake it.
nKK7 TIL scientists were monitoring whale stress levels by analyzing their poop and found that their stress plummeted sharply after the 9/11 attacks. After shipping traffic was halted, the oceans quieted down and made it easier for whales to communicate with each other