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TIL when F. Scott Fitzgerald died, he thought he was a failure, and his work forever forgotten. His novel, The Great Gatsby, was reviewed poorly and had only sold 20,000 copies. It’s now considered the greatest novel in American history, and sells over 500,000 copies per year.

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e0pAL TIL That in 1941 maps and other escape aids were smuggled to Allied POWs in Monopoly sets during World War II. Of the estimated 35,000 Allied POWS who successfully escaped, an estimated one-third were aided in their flight by the rigged Monopoly sets.
XRGP TIL The South African government ordered sculptors to remove a bronze rabbit they hid in the right ear of a Nelson Mandela statue. “We don’t think it’s appropriate because Nelson Mandela never had a rabbit on his ear”
4X9w5 People like to imagine that they’re the pinnacle of evolution, but the animal kingdom suggests otherwise. The discovery that bumblebees use hair on their legs to detect a flower’s electromagnetic field offers another reminder that human senses don’t always measure up. You share the planet with creatures that can smell veins, see colors you can’t imagine, and communicate through their feet. Here are just a few animals with senses sharper than yours.
b6y8j TIL An Alaskan town celebrates Independence Day by launching cars off a cliff
Egpn0 TIL As secretary for the chancellery in 1503, Machiavelli was dispatched to Rome to gather intel and report on the new conclave after Pius III died 26 days into his papacy. He reported the % Giuliano Della Rovere was expecting to get and had the news of his election hours before it was announced