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TIL that Astrud Gilberto made just $120 for singing The Girl from Ipanema, which was the standard studio musician rate at the time. This was because Stan Getz personally intervened to ensure she got nothing.

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gr8Yy TIL Canada did not have official residences for its political leaders until 1950. Laurier House in Ottawa was home to two Canadian Prime Ministers in the decades prior and served as PM Mackenzie King's unofficial office where he conducted much of the nation's business
VM1Xp TIL that the majority of Amtrak's delays are due to freight railroads giving priority to their own trains over passenger trains. Even though this is explicitly against the law, only 1 violator has ever been charged by the Dept. of Justice in the entire 47 year history of Amtrak.
y0V TIL that the U.S. criminal justice system employs more people than America’s two largest private employers - Wal-Mart and McDonald’s - combined, and has proportionally almost 6 times more blacks locked up than South Africa did at the height of Apartheid
95ym TIL Abraham Lincoln dressed up as a Scottish immigrant in order to escape an assassination attempt on his way into Washington for his Inauguration.
YBG7 TIL When bitten by a coral snake, a Texas man killed the snake by biting off the snake’s head and using the decapitated body as a tourniquet.