› added 9 years ago

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TIL Alexander Graham Bell developed the metal detector as a last ditch effort to locate a bullet lodged in the chest of American President James Garfield in 1881; the attempt was unsuccessful because the metal coil spring bed Garfield was lying on confused the detector.

rRoBw TIL of Sonya Golden Hand, a Russian female con artist who committed several carefully planned robberies and stole tens of thousands of rubles. She was eventually captured and exiled to a penal colony. She was moved into solitary confinement after trying to escape the colony dressed as a guard.
6E477 TIL that SeaWorld did everything in its power to conceal the mistreatment of orcas and the killings and injuries induced by their most popular orca, Tilicum, going so far as to blame the trainers knowing full well the whales were being mistreated to the point of mental and physical degradation.
xVAkk TIL that Elvis, two months after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, recorded a live tribute song featuring direct quotes of MLK called "If I Can Dream" and overruled his manager to perform it as the finale to his comeback special over "I'll Be Home for Christmas"
D1k7V TIL A recent study found that the size of a lottery win subsequently increases borrowing and bankruptcies among neighbors of the winner
BrR8k TIL Elvis was a huge Monty Python fan. He would watch Python all night . He would learn and recite them. Took the tapes on his plane. He would call people Squire from the "Nudge Nudge" sketch.