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273

TIL Ancient Romans would flood the Colosseum and stage naval battles.

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X0wl8 TIL: Slaves were sometimes lottery prizes in the past. An example was when Bernard Moore, in quick need of cash, divided his estate into 124 prizes and sold 1840 lottery tickets. You could win a slave, 10 cows, a house, a forge, mill, or wagon. The slaves were the cheapest prizes.
A4yn TIL that Josef Stalin fired, imprisoned, or executed 3,000 biologists because he preferred the research of a guy who denied the existence of genes ard natural selection, and thought that rye could be transformed into wheat. Soviet crop yields declined during his tenure.
y1M8 TIL that honey bees ejaculate so forcefully that their penises explode. This kills the honey bee.
D1vgV TIL the TV movie 'Without Warning' presented as if it were an actual breaking news about meteor fragments crashing into the Earth created an uproar. Channels ABC, Fox, & NBC were flooded with complaints, asking them why they were not covering this event at the same time that CBS was covering it.
ANWxo TIL that USA accidentally dropped 2 nuclear bombs over Morocco in 1956 and in 1966, one of them has never be found and is still in the ocean