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TIL France's ruling class wanted to support the Confederacy and Mexico's Cinco de Mayo victory at the Battle of Puebla may have prevented them from doing so.

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wLk0o TIL In 1994, in an attempt to ban raves, the UK passed a law banning public performance of music “wholly or predominantly characterized by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats.” In response, the electronic band Autechre issued a track, Flutter, in which no two bars have the same beat.
KYNeJ TIL of Yoshie Shiratori, a Japanese man who successfully broke out of 4 different Japanese prisons (once using miso soup to corrode and break his cuffs). After his 4th escape, he encountered a police officer who offered him a cigarette. Touched by this gesture, he willingly turned himself in again.
ep66D TIL Luis "The Beast" Garavita, the world's most prolific serial killer, was sentenced to 1853 years in prison for the deaths of 193 children in Colombia, but his sentence was reduced to 22 years after he helped the police find many of the victims' bodies. He becomes eligible for parole this year.
nk49 TIL that Chickens (and all birds) still have the genes for building teeth in their DNA. The reason they don’t have teeth is that they don’t have a gene that says “use that tooth blueprint in the mouth”.
8aRB8 TIL of the Welsh Christmas tradition, Mari Lwyd, in which a skeletal horse mounted on a pole visits your door singing poetry. You are then compelled to engage in a battle of rhymes and must best it or else you’ll have to let it inside and give it food.