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TIL that Edgar Allan Poe at age 27 married his 13-year old cousin, whom he loved more as a sister. (By then she was already a widow, and apparently they got married so he could provide for her).

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e066b TIL that a number of private US universities (including Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Yale) had quotas on the maximum number of Jews to be admitted. In 1935, Yale's Med School Dean stated: "Never admit more than five Jews, take only two Italian Catholics, and take no blacks at all."
GoA1 TIL that in 1976, a Soviet pilot defected to Japan in his advanced MiG-25 fighter, which Russia demanded be returned. Japan complied, but only after allowing American engineers to examine the aircraft. Japan then shipped it back piece by piece, and billed Russia $40,000 in transport and labor costs.
d8elK TIL A Chinese psychiatrist was giving kids with "internet addiction" electro-shock treatment and psychiatric drugs in prison like conditions. The Chinese World of Warcraft community were outraged and started an online campaign to have him discredited.
xyLb TIL Michael Jordan tipped a cocktail waitress in Vegas with a 5 dollar chip. Wayne Gretzky, who was also at the table, took it off her tray, gave it back to Michael, grabbed a 100 dollar chip from Michael’s stack and put it on her tray. Then he said, “That’s how we tip in Las Vegas, Michael.”
mxB5Y TIL that Darryl Dawkins "Chocolate Thunder", who was most famous for his two glass shattering dunks, was the first NBA player to play out of high school. He once claimed to be an alien from the planet Lovetron, where he spent the off-season practicing "interplanetary funkmanship" with gf Juicy Lucy.