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TIL The original reason no photography was allowed in the Sistine Chapel is because Nippon TV of Japan obtained exclusive photographic, film and television rights in exchange for funding the chapels restoration project (3 million). The rights expired in 1997 but the ban is still upheld today.

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Y7jZ TIL that former journalist Solomon Shereshevsky appeared to have no limits on his ability to memorize, memorizing poems in foreign languages (which he could not understand) within minutes and recalling them verbatim years later; however he could not recognize faces because they were so “changeable.”
gMm5y TIL that the founder of the first permanent European settlement in Greenland, Erik the Red, only decided to settle there because he had been banished for murder from all the other places he had lived.
awM0N TIL Astronauts often see random flashes of light in space, even through closed eyes - this is caused by cosmic rays passing through their eyes or optical nerves. Scientists think the light is either generated by Cherenkov radiation or by the ray being powerful enough to activate the optical nerve.
OoNM1 TIL: A man got a $190 fine for allowing his pet snake to slither freely in a South Dakota park. The animal control officer suggested that he restrain the reptile on a leash while in public.
9wypm TIL in 2017 a couple survived a wildfire in California by jumping into a neighbors pool and staying submerged for 6 hours. They came up for air only when they needed to, using wet t-shirts to shield their faces from falling embers.