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TIL in 1896, 500,000 people gathered in Khodynka Field, Moscow, to receive free gifts, celebrating the crowning of Nicholas II. Rumors spread that there was not enough beer for everybody, and that the beer cups contained a gold coin. The crowd responded by creating a stampede, killing 1,389 people.

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840L TIL The aircraft carrier USS Yorktown was heavily damaged after destroying a Japanese aircraft carrier during the first carrier battle in history. After 48 hours of emergency repairs, it ended up helping destroy two more carriers before being sunk, and inadvertently saved the other US carriers.
9YeVm TIL Beneath the streets of Cincinnati OH is the largest abandoned subway tunnel system in the US. Construction began in the 1910s but was halted by WWI and then canceled indefinitely during the Great Depression.
16XBD TIL that Terri Nunn, singer of Berlin, was asked to merely perform temp-vocals for "Take My Breath Away" for the Top Gun soundtrack, but the producers loved her performance so much, it was pushed to be Berlins next single, despite no other member of Berlin writing or performing on the original song
GgxG TIL of Cathy Wayne, an Australian singer who was shot and killed onstage while on a USO tour in Vietnam – by a US soldier
wPJ7 TIL France used to hold impotence trials, where wives could sue their husbands if he had ED. The husband would have to prove that he could get hard in court. If he couldn’t, his appeal would be a Trial by Congress, where the couple would have sex to prove the husband could fulfill his marital duties