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TIL 19th century England was swept by "Egyptomania", a renewed interest in Egypt's past. Rich Victorians would travel to Egypt and bring back ancient mummies with which they would hold "mummy unwrapping parties" for their friends.

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9YoOD TIL Dr Livingstone ('I presume') was caught and mauled by a lion but felt only a painless dreaminess, later concluding "This peculiar state is probably produced in all animals killed by the carnivora; and if so, is a merciful provision by our benevolent Creator for lessening the pain of death."
p8894 TIL Chrysler once made a motorcycle out of a Doge Viper V-10 engine. The top speed was estimated to be 400 mph.
VMoEk TIL In 1968, Elton John tried to commit suicide because of relationship problems with a woman. He later ran into lyricist Bernie Taupin, who tried to make John more comfortable with his sexuality. The situation inspired Taupin and John to create the song, 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight'
W7gPA TIL about Emperor Norton I, the only Emperor of the United States of America. He was a San Francisco citizen who declared himself Emperor in 1859, and everyone just went along with it. He was beloved by the people of the city and over 10,000 of them attended his funeral.
1dk8 TIL that in 2004 a storage unit that was bought on Storage Wars was found to be full of nude images of Paris Hilton. The unit sold to an entrepreneur who uploaded the images to parisexposed.com and charged users $40 per month to access the site