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TIL that villagers in the India village of Marottichal began playing chess as an alternative to drinking after a ban on alcohol.The village is now known as ‘Chess Village’ due to its near 100% chess literacy.

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kJAQm TIL the Nationals (MLB baseball team) began the 2019 season with a record of 19–31, with their chances of winning the World Series at 1.5%. The Nationals went a perfect 5-0 in elimination games during the playoffs, all of which were come-from-behind victories, the first team in MLB history to do so.
xlP5 TIL: David Tennant fulfilled a pianist’s dying wish by using his skull in a performance of Hamlet.
N7R9b TIL that Motorcycle Chariot Racing became an extremely popular sport in the 1920s when some Australians replaced the horses with motorcycles, after watching the silent film version of 'Ben Hur'
7Nvx TIL in the 50s, teenagers having a stable monogamous relationship (“going steady”) was considered edgy and frowned upon by parents and the church as amoral. Instead they encouraged their kids to go out with different people every weekend. (read column on the right)
4j4R TIL that some orthodox Jewish communities have volunteer ambulance services which survive solely on donations. They don’t bill the patient for transporting them to the hospital, have a faster response time than most ambulance companies, and don’t exclusively service Jews.