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TIL that vanilla beans (like coffee beans) all taste differently based on their country or origin. Some taste like figs, others like cherries, some like licorice and all have a primary flavor of vanilla.

KRl6 TIL in Paris in 1910, engineers had to freeze the Seine (river) along 64 meters to dig the tunnel for the subway going underneath it.
wo6vY TIL: That in 1974, a man performed a highwire walk between the Twin Towers of the WTC in New York. Philippe Petit, a street artist from Paris, took 6 years to plan what he called "le coup" (heist). The feat was later described as the "artistic crime of the century".
60M7 TIL Albert Einstein’s son, Hans, was a famous hydraulic engineering professor who developed important equations for sediment transport in rivers. When reporters asked Albert what he thought of his son’s career, he replied, “He is working on a more difficult problem”
woVpM TIL the phrase "zig-a-zig ah" from the hit song "Wannabe" by Spice Girls comes from "shit and cigars," a nickname given to a man in their recording studio that disliked the Spice Girls and had a habit of taking dumps while smoking cigars in their shared bathroom.
dDkRE TIL that in 1986, a group of metal singers did an event called "hear 'n aid" to raise funds for Africa. It was organized by Ronnie James Dio and his band. This happened apparently because nobody of the metal scene was invited to the more mainstream fun rising event called "We Are the World".