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TIL that the world's oldest continuously operating library is in St. Catherine's monastery in Egypt. Built in the 550s AD by order of Emperor Justinian I, it contains one of the largest collections of early Christian icons, including the earliest known depiction of Jesus as "Christ Pantocrator"

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pEnO TIL That the tradition of throwing womens underwear at rockstars goes all the way back to Franz Liszt
GAnm4 TIL After seeing its pork production decimated by flu outbreaks, farms across China have been investing billions of dollars into massive high-rise hog-raising facilities popularly known as pig hotels, with one hotel in the Southern China being 13 stories tall and meant to hold around 10,000 pigs.
b9EK7 TIL The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences used to give out an Academy Juvenile Award, complete with a miniature statue. Shirley Temple was the first and youngest to win the award at the age of 6 in 1934. Mickey Rooney was the oldest to win at 18. Hayley Mills was the last to win in 1960.
9YRKG TIL UK's highest-paid entertainer in WW2, George Formby, went to Normandy after the landings, & gave 9 shows to frontline troops who’d held out for 56 days without relief, his audience in foxholes. He also crawled through trenches to tell jokes when the enemy was too close for a show.
16n4W TIL that in 1978, Vietnam veteran and US Army Lieutenant Colonel Jim Channon proposed the formation of the 1st Earth Battalion; a New Age revamp of the American military, trained in psychic powers and pacifism. Channon's ideas later inspired the book and movie "The Men Who Stare at Goats".