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TIL that the ceremonial gavel of the US Senate, in use since at least 1789, was broken in 1954 during a heated debate on nuclear energy by VP Richard Nixon

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kO5A1 TIL that around Christmas of 1987, Ronald Gene Simmons murdered 16 people, 14 of which included his family. Months prior to his spree, he instructed his children to dig trenches that he later used to place his family in after their deaths. He turned himself in and never appealed his death sentence.
OLr6 TIL there was a man-made mouse utopia called Universe 25. It started with 4 males and 4 females. The colony peaked at 2200 and from there declined to extinction. Once a tipping point was reached, the mice lost instinctual behaviors. Scientists extrapolate this model to humans on earth.
YNYZ TIL that In 2015, Facebook canceled Harvard student’s internship after he highlighted a massive privacy issue.
X0krQ TIL that in 2005, identity thief Behzad Mofrad plead guilty on charges related to applying for a passport under the name "Kevin Andrew Collins." Kevin was one of the first missing children whose images were ever disseminated nationally on milk cartons. Mofrad assumed his case had been forgotten.
R5nkw TIL of the Yawar Fiesta, held mainly in the mountain village of Coyllurqui near Cusco, its a controversial blood sport that pits bulls against drunken condors. The sport has largely been banned from most Peruvian cities but is still practiced and revered in remote villages just like Coyllurqui.