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TIL that pro bowling balls have specially shaped "weight blocks" inside them to change how the ball curves

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ANRXx TIL that an English chemist named James Price claimed to be able to turn mercury into silver or gold. When asked by members of the Royal Society to perform the experiment in front of credible witnesses, he reluctantly agreed, only to drink poison in front of them instead.
5Y4g9 TIL: on September 2, 1945, Vietnam's independence was proclaimed by Ho Chi Minh. His first words were "All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."
R7rVj TIL it's been found that spiders, in part, store their memories and cognitive abilities in their webs. Destroying a web partially erases a spider's memory.
kOkGB TIL Pope Clement VIII loved coffee: he supposedly tasted the "Muslim drink" [coffee] at the behest of his priests, who wanted him to ban it. "Why, this Satan's drink is so delicious, that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it. We shall fool Satan by baptizing it..."
LQAlv TIL When "New Coke" was released Pepsi gave their employee's the day off and ran full page newspaper ads to declare victory in the cola wars.