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TIL of Yaphank, NY, a town where certain plots of land required the owners to be of German descent and hosted many German-American Bund rallies. The property rules existed into the 2000s, when they were finally sued under Fair Housing doctrine.

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oR5RA TIL that Equatorial Guinea’s first president, Francisco Macías Nguema, led a brutal regime that may have killed tens of thousands and reduced life expectancy to 30 years before being overthrown and executed in 1979.
n0Ar TIL that in 1997 Morgan Freeman offered to cover the cost of prom for a Mississippi school that held two racially segregated proms every year, provided that the one Freeman would be covering would just be one racially integrated prom. This offer was refused until 2008.
VBv8k TIL In 1767 HMS Dolphin established friendly relations with locals on Tahiti. The relationships became more friendly when the sailors discovered that the women were eager to exchange sex for iron. This trade became so extensive that the loss of nails started to threaten Dolphin's physical integrity.
0d5w1 TIL Clarence King, discoverer of Mount Whitney and one of the USA's best-known scientists, revealed on his deathbed in 1901 that he had a second life, wife & five kids, living as a Black man named James Todd.
8ekja TIL about the Anti-Tank Dog. Dogs taught to carry explosives to tanks, armored vehicles and other military targets. It failed because they would train the dogs using their own tanks and would mine friendly tanks instead.