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TIL that in 1971, phone phreaker John Draper discovered a way to gain free minutes for long-distance, AT&T calls. He would blow a toy, ‘Captain Crunch’ whistle, which had the same 2600-hertz tone that indicated a trunk line was ready to be put through, and gain access to additional minutes.

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BVVk TIL that the Mongols killed so many people in the Iranian Plateau that “Some historians have estimated that Iran’s population did not again reach its pre-Mongol levels until the mid-20th century”
Y58B TIL Ireland’s reputation for scholarship in the early medieval period was so good that many scholars traveled from Britain and the European mainland to study in Irish schools
N7ZpP TIL the single police officer of the regional town Birdsville, NSW (population: 100) patrols an area larger than Britain.
ypQJ TIL Charles Redheffer was an American inventor who claimed to have invented a perpetual motion machine, He was later exposed when an engineer found a hidden cord that led to an upper floor. Upstairs he found an old man who was turning a hand-crank with one hand and eating bread with the other
LkGwm TIL that for 11 years, Norway banned skateboarding