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TIL of Rithmomachia, a complex medieval game similar to Chess, based on arithmetic.

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eEDk TIL Aeschylus, the famous author of tragedies, died from a tortoise being dropped by an eagle that had mistaken his head for a rock suitable for shattering the turtles shell. Aeschylus stayed indoors as often as possible since he prophesied he would be killed by a falling object.
6EJPY TIL there is a linear relationship between sleep and cognitive functioning: more sleep leads to better cognitive performance, and vice versa.
X0rEj TIL of Amtor. Edgar Rice Burroughs (author of Tarzan) also wrote a 5-book series set on Venus, which was imagined as a water world. The main character, a human astronaut, meets princesses, becomes a pirate twice in the series, and is crowned a prince after the overthrow of a kingdom.
A4dw TIL that when the CIA opened a Twitter account, their first tweet was “We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet.”
MebQ8 TIL A Kilogram was previously defined by the weight of a platinum-based ingot locked in a safe in Paris. It has been used since 1889. The General Conference on Weights and Measures decided to redefine Kilogram in terms of an electric current.