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TIL there is a special seat in the US Senate known as the Candy Desk because it has a drawer full of sweets. The senator who sits there must stock it full of candy from their home state. It has been a tradition since the 1960s.

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Z8YQa TIL about a species of human that grew no larger than a modern 3-year-old child and lived on a remote island in Indonesia 18,000 years ago. These humans lived alongside Homo sapiens. They manufactured sophisticated stone tools, hunted elephants, and more, all with a brain only 1/3 the size of ours.
7rrGp TIL if Mars' polar ice caps were to melt the entire planet would be covered in 11 meters (36 feet) of water
Zrrv TIL in 2016 a Russian hacker released the World Anti-Doping Agencies records which revealed that despite past denials both Venus and Serena Williams had used and received waivers for banned substances including corticosteroids and narcotics.
4Xkla TIL that the Holy Roman state of Hesse-Kessel became a "mercenary state" renting out its army to other major powers. The state maintained strict neutrality, to the point that it would rent out soldiers to both sides of a conflict and the Hessian soldiers would end up fighting each other.
oB6go TIL a meteor had fallen in the kingdom of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, and on it someone had written "The First Emperor will die and his land will be divided." When he heard this, he sent someone to investigate who did it, and when no one admitted, all the people living nearby the meteor were killed.