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TIL that arabs had banned the export of unroasted coffee beans so that everyone would have to continue buying it from them but an Indian saint Budan smuggled 7 seeds in his beard risking capital punishment thereby starting the coffee production in India and ending arabian monopoly on it.

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oQEY TIL That River Phoenix was to play the role of Daniel Molloy in Interview with the Vampire but upon his untimely death 4 weeks before shooting Christian Slater was cast and then donated his entire salary to Phoenix’s favorite charities.
ORLg TIL that biliverdin, the pigment that gives robin eggs their blue color, is the same pigment that makes bruises look blue.
7KxM TIL A chess grandmaster threw the final round of a tournament in protest of having repeatedly been made to play women. She turned down the chance to defend her women’s world title to play mixed matches and randomly drew 7 women out of 10 rounds. The 5 move loss is the quickest ever by a grandmaster.
yQy0M TIL in 2009 a man sued Pepsi after finding a dead mouse in his Mt. Dew. They responded by saying that if the mouse had been in the soda since its bottling, it would have dissolved.
7rgVP TIL That after winning the battle of Kleidion in 1014, the Byzantine Emperor Basil II took an estimated 14,000-15,000 prisoners, and punished them by sorting them into groups of a 100, then blinded 99 men in each one and left a single man in each with one eye so that he could lead the others home.