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TIL that beginning in the 1940s through the 1960s, the Quebec government collaborated with the Catholic Church to falsely certify 20,000 “orphaned” children as mentally ill and confine them to psychiatric institutions. The orphans were then subjected to medical experimentation and sexual abuse.

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GYWM4 TIL in 2017 the FDA banned a bakery from listing 'love' as an ingredient on its granola
yQ6AM TIL between 1900-1906 black Oklahomans doubled in population, due in part to the efforts of Edward P McCabe who founded the city of Langston as part of a program to create 25 all black settlements, take over a majority of voting districts and create an all black state.
j68Av TIL that the official cause of Houdini's death on Halloween in 1926 was diffuse peritonitis; this is the result of a burst appendix. J. Gordon Whitehead's sucker punch did not cause his death because Houdini died 6 days later after the punch, and it was caused from a bacterial infection.
4XRQo TIL James Baskett, star of controversial Disney classic 'Song of the South', was unable to attend the film's premiere because he would not have been allowed to participate in any of the festivities, as Atlanta was then a racially segregated city.
8jbZ TIL that J.R.R.Tolkien (The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings) and C.S.Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia) were friends at Oxford. They organised a literary group for budding writers who would share their stories over lunch and a beer in the same pub every Tuesday.