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TIL conflicting accounts on the sources regarding the date of when the Mona Lisa was commissioned and executed, has led some to theorise that the painting currently at the Louvre is not the original painting commissioned my Mona Lisa's husband, but only a copy, while the original remained unfinished

Z8K6G TIL that in 2006, the brakes failed on Joaquin Phoenix's car in Hollywood, and he flipped off the road. He was found by Werner Herzog, who stopped Phoenix from lighting a cigarette as gasoline leaked into the car cabin. Herzog broke the back windscreen, helped Phoenix out, and then went home.
X06QP TIL pumpkin pie and Thanksgiving were a matter of mid-19th century identity politics. When Abraham Lincoln declared a day of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November in 1863, many Southern families refused Thanksgiving and especially pumpkin pie as cultural artifacts of the Yankees.
v1b88 TIL that to actually disinfect, most surface sprays need to be left wet on the bench for up to 10 minutes before wiping them off again. Pesky fine print, huh.
v1kPx TIL in 1938 William Cooper led a delegation of the Australian Aboriginal League to the German Consulate in Melbourne to hand over a petition protesting the “cruel persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazi government of Germany.” 70 years later Israel planted 70 trees in remembrance of the protest
oBJd8 TIL It took Chinese authorities 7 minutes to locate and apprehend a BBC reporter using a network of CCTV camera and facial recognition technology