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TIL U.S. railroads adopted the Standard Time System on the "Day of Two Noons." On Nov. 18, 1883, the Univ. of Pittsburgh's observatory telegraphed railroads at the exact moment of high noon under the 90th meridian line to reset/synchronize their clocks, dissolving the 100+ timezones previously used.

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DZBe TIL Scientology obtained their tax exemption from the IRS by having P.I.s dig into the personal lives of IRS managers and initiating hundreds of law suits against IRS employees. Eventually Scientology offered to drop all suits for religious tax exemption and the US government caved.
4XLaN TIL Certain bacteria can be incorporated into concrete to increase it's strength.
P1Mn TIL Enigma (German WWII encryption) was broken in part because operators used guessable passcodes, including letter repeats, adjacent key letters, four letter German names, and obscenities.
X0goX TIL that according to the National Registry of Exonerations in the United States, 27% of those on the registry who were accused of homicide, but were later exonerated, gave false confessions. 81% of people with mental illness or intellectual disabilities also confessed when accused of homicide.
wGa7 TIL that the pledge of allegiance in schools was conceived by a businessman who wanted to sell flags.