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TIL there are 14 sailors stuck on an oil tanker off the coast of the UAE for nearly 4 years due to their company abandoning them and the ship.

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8ePaK TIL the 1991 eruption of Mt.Pinatubo in the Philippines triggered a "volcanic winter" that lowered the earth's temperature, causing unusually cold weather in the northern hemisphere for a few years afterwards.
EEKP TIL Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie & Emma Thompson all started their career together at Footlights student theater club while at Cambridge university. Same club also gave Simon Bird(The Inbetweeners), John Oliver(The Daily Show) & Douglas Adams(Hitchhickers guide to the galaxy)
GYRw4 TIL Japanese Yakuza have a unique form of extortion known as sōkaiya. Instead of harassing small businesses for protection money, the yakuza harasses the stockholder meetings of large corporations.
N79WN TIL: After British colonists killed off the entirety of the Tasmanian Aboriginal natives in a matter of ~60 years, the last full-blooded Tasmanian male's body was dug up by a surgeon (who had already mutilated the corpse in the hospital previously) can take skin off the body to make a tobacco pouch.
4kvAb TIL the 2008 writers’ strike resulted in the first season of Breaking Bad being two episodes shorter and prevented the killing off of Hank Schrader (Dean Norris), who had originally been planned for elimination during the first season.