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TIL The practice of focusing on disasters elsewhere when one occurs in the Soviet Union was so common that after watching reports on Soviet television about a catastrophe abroad, Russians would call Western friends to find out whether something had happened in the Soviet Union.

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wLNrJ TIL Lionel Tate is the youngest American ever sentenced to life without the possibility of parole at 13. It was overturned and he was given 1 yr house arrest and 10 yrs probation. At 18 he committed an armed robbery, he's now serving 30 yrs for violating parole and 10 yrs for armed robbery.
vWo4 TIL that every year on 4/20 Canadians gather on the steps of parliament to smoke weed. Despite it not being legal in Canada yet, no arrests are made
jJbR TIL that Japan has over 50,000 Centenarians, people living over the age of 100, coming in second by only 1200 people behind the United States.
KW5a TIL that the French word for wooden shoe, ‘sabot’ is the probable root of the word sabotage: and refers to the tactic by early Dutch unionists of throwing sabots into the gears of factory or farm machinery, effectively stopping work until the equipment could be repaired.
8a7X TIL. There exists a Mohawk settlement on land reclaimed, by force, from the United States.