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TIL there was a group of notable French artists where they gathered and smoked cannabis. Members of "Club des Hashischins" included Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Charles Baudelaire, and Eugene Delacroix.

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KO5X4 TIL James Stockdale, a Vietnam War POW who didn't want to be in Vietnam, spent over seven years in a POW camp - four of them in solitary confinement and two in leg irons - and credits his Stoic philosophy studies for allowing him and his men to survive the constant torture and interrogation
XlwE TIL that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 entitled everyone to access accommodation, public transport, and theatres regardless of race or color. In 1883, this law was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court as being unconstitutional.
jVoE TIL the feminine companion word to phallic is yonic, meaning imagery evoking or in the shape of the vulva or vagina.
x6rr1 TIL that part of the reason the Mafia is so powerful in southern Italy is because Italian judges who score well on exams get to choose their post; those sent to work in Calabria usually request to be transferred right away.
xVQng TIL of Charles Lightoller, one of many individuals who used his personal boats to assist in the evacuation of French and British troops at Dunkirk in 1940. Prior to this, he was the senior-most officer to survive the sinking of the RMS Titanic and enforced the "women and children first" order