› added 6 years ago

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TIL of Hussain al-Shahristani. An Iraqi who was forced into solitary confinement in prison for 8 years under Saddam Hussein. He kept his sanity by “making up mathematical problems, which he then tried to solve.” He later became Iraq’s minister of higher education and scientific research.

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via reddit.com

JYbjB TIL That Queen Victoria used to take cocaine and once took the drug with Winston Churchill when he was young.
yVXLM TIL that a few hours before their flight, cosmonauts are spun on swivel chairs, tilted on special beds, and deliberately disoriented to prepare for zero-G, especially to handle space sickness caused by leaving the planet
oRBoR TIL that the Truman Show was originally a dark thriller which took place in a New York-style city. It took many drafts of the script to arrive at the comedy-drama that eventually made it to screen.
DnKV TIL that in 2011, in response to a bill prohibiting Tennessee school teachers from alluding to homosexuality, George Takei offered his last name in lieu of the word “gay”, e.g. “Takei Marriage”, “Takei Pride Parade”, and even “That’s so Takei”
vBBD TIL that Roald Dahl wrote ‘The Twits’ because he hated beards and wanted to “do something against [them]”