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TIL that when the US and France were both trying to build a cross-ocean canal, America originally wanted to build a canal in Nicaragua, not Panama. They only began in Panama after the French failed to complete the project.

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8L9K TIL that American psychologist George Stratton conducted experiments in which he either wore glasses inverting images both upside-down and left-right or a contraption that forced him to see his body from above. He found that it took only a few days for his brain to adapt to the new orientations.
DLjP TIL after discovering his hotel alias, Michael Jackson used to prank call Russell Crowe and say things like “‘Is Mr. Wall there? Is Mrs. Wall there? Are there any Walls there? Then what’s holding the roof up?”
j68Av TIL that the official cause of Houdini's death on Halloween in 1926 was diffuse peritonitis; this is the result of a burst appendix. J. Gordon Whitehead's sucker punch did not cause his death because Houdini died 6 days later after the punch, and it was caused from a bacterial infection.
mxJaO TIL that Chinese youth used to listen to a lot of music CDs from the US with holes punched through the corner. The so-called "dakou" CDs were surplus albums destined to be disposed, but ended up being sold in China instead. You could listen to most of each album, but some songs would be missing.
N7KM TIL Lyndon B. Johnson once urinated on a secret serviceman who was shielding him from public view just because he was the president and he could.