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TIL that pencils are yellow because American pencil makers wanted people to know they contained Chinese graphite

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7r5xO TIL about a Mexican plane that made an emergency landing on a race course in Mallow, Ireland, in 1983. In order for the plane to successfully take off again, a runway had to be specially built so the captain and crew spent 39 day in the town and became minor celebrities among the locals
0dr9M TIL a New Jersey man bought a $5 bottle of orange juice from Shoprite; his wife said it was too expensive and sent him back to return it, because it was on sale for $2.50 elsewhere. He then decided to buy 2 lottery tickets with the cash refunded from the OJ; he won $315.3 million.
lPJN TIL legendary boxer Muhammad Ali reportedly went two months without sex before a big fight, claiming it made him unbeatable in the ring.
gEKL TIL Henry Ford once balked at paying $10,000 to General Electric for work done troubleshooting a generator, and asked for an itemized bill. The engineer who performed the work, Charles Steinmetz, sent this: “Making chalk mark on generator, $1. Knowing where to make mark, $9,999.” Ford paid the bill.
nedMb TIL There was a proposal to make Ottawa's Rideau Street enclosed in a continuous glass-and-steel structure. The heated mall was expected to allow pedestrians to shop in comfort year-round. However, the downside was that it attracted large numbers of vagrants and late-night drinkers