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TIL the last emperor of china, Puyi, became emperor at 2 then, shortly after, china became a republic. Puyi like many other Chinese emperors stayed separated from the rest of China in the forbidden city. No one told Puyi he was no longer emperor until his mid teenage years.

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ygAV TIL David Ogilvy, a founder/forefather of modern advertising, despised outdoor ads: “Man is at his vilest when he erects a billboard. When I retire from Madison Avenue, I am going to start a secret society of masked vigilantes… chopping down posters at the dark of the moon.”
woxB1 TIL artist Dean Cornwell submitted three entries for a competition to paint the rotunda of the Los Angeles Public Library, one under his real name and two under fake names. Cornwell won the competition with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.
gMNBL TIL that in thanks to Benjamin Franklin, all electrical diagrams (at least in the U.S.) are technically backwards (in terms of electron flow/direction). He assumed the flow of electricity originated from the positive terminal of a current source, and traveled to the negative terminal.
R7VRl TIL that modern humans and neanderthals interbred, and as a result, all non-Africans carry between one and four percent Neanderthal DNA.
7r4lx TIL In spite of the US Constitution's "no religious test" clause, eight states have language in their constitutions either requiring state officeholders to have particular religious beliefs or specifically protecting those who do. The language condoning religious tests is allegedly unenforceable.