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TIL French author Voltaire wrote over 2000 books & was read by Napoleon, Frederick the Great & Catherine the Great. Upon his death in 1778 Catherine the Great purchased his entire collection & moved it to The Hermitage in Russia.

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mN7Y TIL in 1996, as a April Fool’s Day prank, the Taco Bell Corporation took out a full-page ad that appeared in six major newspapers saying that it had bought the Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. The National Historic Park in Philadelphia received hundreds of outraged calls.
XpB8 TIL Some older/less efficient worker termites will develop ‘backpacks’ of toxic chemicals that explode when the termite is threatened. They are essentially used as suicide bombers when the colony is being attacked.
7r8XX TIL the 1940 Winter Olympics were originally given to Japan. They declined the games due to the start of the Sino-Japanese War. Eventually they were awarded to Germany. Three months later, Germany invaded Poland. The games were canceled altogether.
R5RGw TIL that in 1857 a group of Utah Mormons, disguised as Native Americans, massacred 120 emigrants travelling from Arkansas to California.
dDrEd TIL windsocks are used to tell the wind speed and not just direction