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TIL JT LeRoy wrote two novels on his tragic childhood, dubbing him a genius of his generation, sparking a race for their film rights. He was friends with celebs like Madonna & Winona Ryder, talking to them for hours over the phone. It turns out JT Leroy didn’t exist and was in fact entirely made up.

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8egZG TIL in a football game in 1916, Georgia Tech beat Cumberland College 222-0. Georgia Tech made 32 touchdowns, and never attempted to pass: they ran the ball on every single play. It was such a butt-whooping that the referees cut the last two quarters to 12 minutes instead of 15.
J0xk TIL that when translated into modern English, The word Mortgage literally means “death pledge”. Mort - from the French meaning “Death” and Gage - from Old English meaning “Pledge”
0deAL TIL The Flintstones was the most financially successful and longest-running network animated television series for three decades, until The Simpsons surpassed it in 1997.
XQP8 TIL that on the way to his inauguration, President Franklin Pierce’s only living child was crushed to death in front of him and his wife in a train derailment. Pierce descended into alcoholism, the First Lady into depression, and the country into violence.
Z8rnY TIL In a temperate climate, a human body can completely decompose into a skeleton in 3 weeks to several years. If undisturbed by animals, acids in fertile soils can dissolve human skeletons in around 20 years. In sand or neutral soil, the skeleton can remain intact for hundreds of years.