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TIL Latvia had a brief past as a colonial power. The Duchy of Courland, an antecedent to Latvia, held territory on the island of Tobago in the Caribbean and on the Gambia River in West Africa in the mid-1600s.

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oYNR TIL The first confirmed Case of AIDS in the US was a 15 year old Missouri boy…in 1969!
OonkX TIL that even though the wheel is often citied as man's original invention... it wasn't invented until after flutes, baskets, woven cloth, and even boats
p8aeN TIL that there are poop banks that will pay you for your stools. The stool samples are processed and are used to treat people suffering from infections of C. difficile -- a bacteria that causes severe gastrointestinal distress. Dedicated poopers can make up to $13,000 a year.
4Xjj6 TIL a tanner, John J. Loud, desiring a pen that could write on leather, invented the first ballpoint pen and patented it in 1888. This pen had a small steel ball which was placed so it could not fall out nor fall in but it still could rotate freely. Loud's invention then was not commercially viable.
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