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TIL that from 1897 until 1996 the federal government had a board of tea testers whose job was to make sure that imported tea was good enough to be sold in the US.

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VBmp TIL Soviet forces raped 1/3rd of all German women living in Berlin during World War II
dNOE TIL that before the Columbian Exchange, there were no oranges in Florida, no bananas in Ecuador, no potatoes in Ireland, no coffee in Colombia, no pineapples in Hawaii, no rubber trees in Africa, no chili peppers in Thailand, no tomatoes in Italy, and no chocolate in Switzerland.
eoLk TIL during World War II, the British secret service set up fake charities to distribute care packages with special copies of the board game Monopoly to prisoners of war in Germany. The game contained real compasses; metal files; French, German, and Italian money; and maps.
6KWZ TIL - Leopold II of Belgium is responsible for an estimated 10 million deaths in Congo. Also, he was so notorious for mutilation that the left hand was removed from his statue.
ANQmg TIL the singer building in Manhattan, which was one of the most recognized buildings in new York city, and used to be the world's tallest, was demolished in the '60s. at the time the tallest building to be purposely demolished until 2019