› added 3 weeks ago

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TIL about a Burial Tax: a local tax was in place requiring a fee to be paid for "perpetual" burial. Some bodies for which the tax was not paid were disinterred and are in a museum

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W7yk4 TIL the "snake oil salesman" is attributed to Clark Stanley who gained national attention marketing snake oil at the 1893 World's Fair. In 1916 a USDA analysis concluded there was no snake oil in his concoction at all, and that it was 99% mineral oil. He was fined $20 ($543.69 in 2022).
JnQB TIL in 2003 a Boeing 727 was stolen from an airport in Nigeria. Despite a worldwide search by the FBI and the CIA, it was never found.
Z8W8R TIL that King Frederik VII of Denmark was the last monarch to rule in Denmark as an absolute monarch and that when he died childless in 1863, a succession crisis ensued.
R7R19 TIL that around 80% of ‘close door’ buttons on elevators don’t do anything
YW9B TIL that after their only son died at the age of 15, Leland Stanford founded Stanford University and told his wife that “the children of California shall be our children.”