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TIL purple cloth was rare in medieval Europe partially because blue and red dyes were made by separate guilds and use of another guild’s color was forbidden

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KO466 TIL in 2005 there was an erroneous Emergency Alert TV/radio broadcast in Connecticut that called for the evacuation of the entire state. Residents did not evacuate, and the most common response was to simply change the channel.
WkNJ4 TIL that the Captain of the USS Indianapolis was court-martialed for its' sinking in 1945. In 1996, a history project by a sixth grader cleared his name.
R7jL6 TIL about Albert Pierrepoint, an English hangman who executed between 435 and 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956. During his tenure he hanged over 200 people convicted of war crimes in Germany and Austria, as well as some high-profile murderers.
l8GB TIL that the first person to row solo across an ocean also once tried to commit suicide-by-jaguar.
W7GJ4 TIL that Stanley Kubrick originally wanted a happy ending for the 1957 film Paths of Glory to make the film more commercial. However, The film's star and producer Kirk Douglas forced Kubrick to change it into a downer ending from the original novel.