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TIL that the Italian island of sicily was occupied by Muslims between from 831 to 1091 AD. Under Muslim rule, the island became increasingly prosperous and cosmopolitan. Trade and agriculture flourished, and Palermo, its capital, became one of the largest and wealthiest cities in Europe.

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v1Em4 TIL Hans van Meegeren is a master forger known as a national hero in the Netherlands for selling his fake art to Nazis during WW2. After the war, people believed the paintings were real, and he was charged as a collaborator. To prove his innocence, he painted a new forgery at his trial. It worked.
O5pg TIL that Octopus wrestling was a popular sport in the 1960s.
nWp4P TIL Pope Pius 11( Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini) was a published author before he became a pope. One of his books is rather eyebrow raising, in light of his future career choice. That book, The Tale of Two Lovers, is quite salacious and full of erotic imagery.
ky04 TIL Stetson Kennedy infiltrated the KKK in the 1940s, exposing its secrets to authorities and the outside world. He coined the term “Frown Power” when he started a campaign with that name, which simply encouraged people to pointedly frown when they heard bigoted speech.
W7YJX TIL Freshwater snails carry a parasitic disease called schistosomiasis, which infects nearly 250 million people, mostly in Asia, Africa and South America. “It's one of the world's most deadly parasites,” says Susanne Sokolow, a disease ecologist at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station