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TIL that a marathon is exactly 26 miles and 385 yards because that happened to be the length of the 1908 London Olympic marathon and not because it is the distance between Marathon and Athens, which is approximately 25 miles.

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oBdR TIL that the Isles of Scilly has the smallest football (soccer) league in the world. The league consist of 2 teams who play one another 17 times a season and compete for 2 cups and the league title.
RXy6 TIL that China’s army holds annual training exercises against a ‘Blue Force’ equipped to resemble a NATO adversary like the United States. The Blue Force nearly always wins; in 2014, only one visiting brigade was able to defeat it at the cost of 50% casualties.
xVW6w TIL that the ice pick used to kill Leon Trotsky is on display at the International Spy Museum in Washington, District of Columbia
O6be TIL that the german satire party “DIE PARTEI” received one seat in the European Parliament in the 2014 election. One of their goals is to generate new jobs by reconstructing the Berlin Wall.
PYXnV TIL It was common in American churches to auction pews to families as a means of raising income, as churches lacked government funding through mandatory tithing. Those lacking money for these pews were demeaned by their relegation to “free seats.”