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TIL that in 1873 a man defrauded the residents of Alta, Utah out of $2,500 by claiming to be able to raise the dead. They paid him the money NOT to raise anybody. The story was later adapted into "The Twilight Zone" episode "Mr. Garrity and the graves."

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nWaD9 TIL about the death of 9yr old Stanton Walker. A spectator at a baseball game in Morristown(ohio), he was struck by a foul ball while a knife was passed between his companions for the purpose of sharpening a score keeping pencil. The knife lodged between his ribs and he died in minutes.
mx8gM TIL that blackjack basic strategy (the optimal strategy for winning) was developed by four US army engineers, who called themselves the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In 2008 they were inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame.
QJ0Zd TIL that Mitch Mitchell was chosen over Ansley Dunbar to be the drummer for the Jimi Hendrix Experience by a coin toss. He would later not be chosen as the drummer for Paul McCartney and Wings when he lost a coin toss.
x6eW5 TIL that the Alf TV series ended with Alf kidnapped by the US government (which wanted to disect Alf). Originally a season finale cliffhanger, this ended up being the series finale.
0dXkA TIL the term "conspiracy theory" is itself the subject of a conspiracy theory, which posits that the term was popularized by the CIA to discredit conspiratorial believers who opposed the Warren Commission Report that concluded JFK was assassinated by a lone gunman.