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TIL When the founders of Google went to Burning Man in 1998, they incorporated a stick figure into the Google logo before they left. This was the first Google Doodle.

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XpVX TIL nobody can stand to be in world’s quietest room for more than 45 minutes. It is so quiet, the sounds of the body’s organs working and blood flowing drives people mad.
XEkWk TIL Walt Disney bought his parents a house and asked his studio to fix the furnace there. His guys botched the job, causing the furnace to leak, resulting in his mother’s death.
GAeeJ TIL using 160 million records, Cambridge researchers found that while much of Europe remained agricultural, British male agricultural workers fell from 64% to 42% between 1600-1740 while in goods production they increased from 28 to 42%. They date the industrial revolution as beginning in the 1600s.
woNDP TIL Emperor Yao Chang of 4th century China had killed the emperor he had formerly served. Later he felt the late emperor's spirit was aiding his avenging army, and made a shrine for the emperor he himself killed, asking for bygones be bygones and to protect him from his avenging troops.
1a4pX TIL Japan's first prime minister, Ito Hirobumi- who was a great proponent of learning from/building ties with the West- ironically began his political career as the young samurai who burnt the British Legation in Tokyo in 1863. That same year, Japanese modernizers sent Ito to study in the London.