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184

TIL that Pope John Paul II is considered to have begun the chain of events which saw the collapse of Communism in Europe, thanks to his trip to Poland in 1979.

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vNm7 TIL that Superb Fairy-wrens teach their eggs a ‘secret password’ that the young can sing when they hatch. Those that sing the password get food, and the brood parasite eggs (which don’t learn the password) go hungry!
VMwdk TIL that in 2014, Sony released a cassette tape with storage capacity of 185 Tera-Bytes. That means the tape could contain over 64 million songs, or the storage on 11 thousand iPhones.
grE9y TIL Hornussen is a indigenous Swiss sport. It's named after the "Hornuss" (Hornet) puck, which buzzes at speeds up to 300 km/h. First recorded in Bern 1625, in a complaint about the breaking of Sabbath. Two men were fined the sum of 20 francs for playing Hornussen on Sunday.
oBYmr TIL that a heavily-promoted 1979 American sitcom about black congressman did not air due to opposition from the Black Congressional Caucus, who feared that airing "Mr. Dugan" would be "disastrous, showing a (black) congressman who was a silly, incompetent man ruled by his staff"
p8mWe TIL that Troop Sport, a popular streetwear brand in the '80s and '90s, went bankrupt because of fake rumors that it was owned by the KKK.