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TIL that in preparation for a state visit by Nicolae Ceausescu, Elizabeth II ordered the guest rooms of Buckingham Palace be stripped of valuables for fears that they’d be stolen. She later described the visit as the worst three days of her life

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R5poj TIL that English poet Robert Southey was expelled from Westminster School for writing an article attributing the invention of flogging to the Devil.
4xoa TIL the Chinese have opened the highest and longest glass-bottom bridge in the world in an area known as the Avatar Mountains. The bridge spans 430 meters and is as much as 300 meters high.
b6Bg9 TIL that Switzerland had a lot of important structures packed with demolition charges until the 2010s in case of an invasion.
R9ol TIL that when Bill Robinson, early film megastar and sidekick to Shirley Temple, was asked by a manager to leave a restaurant, he asked to borrow a $10 bill. When the manager agreed, he mixed it up with six $10 bills from his own wallet and said “Here, let’s see you pick out the colored one”.
neWJb In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, a poor woman with a middle-school education, made one of the greatest medical contributions ever. Her cells, taken from a cervical-cancer biopsy, became the first immortal human cell line—the cells reproduce infinitely in a lab. Although other immortal lines have since been established, Lacks's "HeLa" cells are the standard in labs around the world. Together they outweigh 100 Empire State Buildings and could circle the equator three times.