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TIL the law requiring American TV news stations to provide viewers with contrasting points of view, called “The Fairness Doctrine”, was eliminated in 1987.

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ALww TIL In the first Deus Ex game the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center are absent due to memory limitations. The explanation is that they were destroyed in a terrorist attack. A year after the game’s initial release, the real Twin Towers were destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
xV1Gg TIL many large fruits are considered “ghosts”, because large animals like the giant sloth that used to disperse them have gone extinct
0ljN TIL that Holland has a defensive strategy of submerging the whole country in case of foreign invasion.
M7vna TIL that the first airplane to ever take off from a ship launched from the cruiser USS Birmingham in 1910. Eugene Ely flew a fragile curtiss biplane off a wooden platform built over the bow. The ship was only armed with two 5-inch guns but it accidentally started the aircraft carrier era
l7O4K TIL an inmate named Charles Justice was released early on parole for designing improvements to the electric chair, using metal instead of leather for the wrist restraints. Months later, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by the same chair he had improved