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TIL petit Four (small french pastries) got their name from how they are baked. Traditional brick ovens took a long time to cool down, so to not waste residual heat after baking bread, bakers made smaller cakes at this lower temperature. It was called baking à petit four - literally "at small oven."

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vPpZB TIL from the 1940s-1970s, pinball was banned in some of the biggest cities in the US due to claims that it was a mafia-run gambling scheme that corrupted the youth. It wasn’t until 1976, when an expert demonstrated in court that pinball was a game of skill & not luck, that the ban in NYC was lifted.
XEXVQ TIL in September 1940, British pilot Ray Holmes saved Buckingham Palace from being hit by German bombing, when he used his Hawker Hurricane to destroy a Dornier Do 17 bomber over London by ramming but at the loss of his own aircraft (and almost his own life)
JYZrQ TIL the cover of the Arctic Monkeys album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not," was criticised by Laurence Gruer of NHS Scotland for its image of a man smoking. The band's product manager retorted, "You can see from the image smoking is not doing him the world of good."
p8DrQ TIL about denkiburo - electrified bathtubs found at some Japanese bathhouses
yVAZe TIL Bolivia's Palacio de Sal Hotel, located at the edge of the world's largest salt flat (Salar de Uyuni), is constructed entirely of salt. The floor, walls, ceiling, beds, tables, chairs, and sculptures are all made of salt. There is a rule prohibiting guests from licking the walls.