› added 11 years ago

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TIL reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes was being kept awake at night by the bright neon sign from the ‘Silver Slipper’ casino, so he bought the casino and dismantled the sign.

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9wAlm TIL about Hitomi Soga-Jenkins, a Japanese woman who was abducted to North Korea with her mother in 1978. Her mother disappeared and was never seen again. She was given a Korean name and married an American defector. They had two daughters. The family returned to Japan in 2004 where they live today.
1aEPD TIL that the source tune for the American National Anthem, the Star Spangled Banner, came from an 18th century drinking song called "To Anacreon In Heaven."
pYWO TIL Amish men do not grow mustaches because, as pacifists, they did not want to be associated with warring Europeans who wore elaborate mustaches.
woEO6 TIL Brazil, despite being a country with no colonial territories, actually had its own overseas territory shortly after becoming independent. A naval base located in what was the Portuguese Congo/Cabinda Province, with the aim of suppressing the Atlantic slave trade.
nP0o TIL there was a troop of ancient Greek soldiers made up entirely of gay couples called the Sacred Band of Thebes