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TIL Edgar Allen Poe wrote a story in 1838 about a shipwrecked crew that cannibalized their own cabin boy whose name was Richard Parker. Then in 1884. a real life ship sank and the surviving crew drifting in a lifeboat, cannibalized their cabin boy whose name was Richard Parker

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D17wr TIL that in 1950, four students from Glasgow stole the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey and smuggled it back to Scotland in a Ford Anglia. The stone, also called the Coronation Stone, is the stone upon which British royalty is crowned, and was taken by the English from Scotland in 1296.
P1W8G TIL the placebo effect varies with tablet colour. Red, yellow, and orange pills are associated with a stimulant effect. Blue and green are related to a tranquilizing effect. Hypnotic, sedative, and anxiolytic drugs were more likely than antidepressants to be green, blue, or purple.
VMOym TIL there was a virus in the popular video game, World of Warcraft, which, despite being intended for a small area, spread rapidly causing vacant cities and widespread death until it was fixed. The event grabbed the attention of epidemiologists.
9wvep TIL the concept of sister cities originated in WW2 as a way of establishing solidarity between allied cities that had been devastated by fighting and air raids. The first 'twinned' cities were Coventry, England and Stalingrad in the Soviet Union in 1942 as both were extensively destroyed in the war
p1YG TIL, that British MPs while speaking within Parliament are exempt from defamation laws, this allows them to insult each other in any way possible without any legal consequence.