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TIL that upon Harry Houdini's death, his magic equipment was inherited by his brother Theodore on the condition that it be "burned and destroyed" upon Theodore's death. Instead, the equipment ended up in the Houdini Magical Hall of Fame, a museum which burnt down in 1995.

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4e7g TIL in 1999, Douglas Adams founded h2g2.com, The Hitchhiker’s Guide the Galaxy: Earth Edition, a “constantly expanding, user-generated guide to life, the universe and everything,” two years before Wikipedia launched.
p8g7A TIL that the US military was so unprepared leading up to WWII, General George Patton personally bought tools and parts from the Sears-Roebuck mail order catalog to get the 2nd Armored Division to operational status.
Zv1Y TIL that there is only 1 woman in the top 100 chess players in the world, and no woman has ever won a world championship.
7rvjO TIL that not everyone can unfocus their eyes whenever they want to. It's accomplished by having the ability to relax the ciliary muscles in your eyes, which causes them to lose their focusing powers.
W77GX TIL that only 20-30% of Indians are vegetarians, and a majority of Indians are actually non-vegetarians.