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TIL In 1876, the Sultan of Turkey gave marijuana to the United States as a gift. By 1880, Turkish smoking parlors were opened all over the northeastern U.S.

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lx7r TIL The Times’s description of a Peter Ustinov documentary stated “highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector”. This quote is used to support use of the serial (Oxford) comma.
1aXyd TIL Galileo used a crude refracting telescope. His initial version only magnified 8x but was soon refined to 20x magnification. The main problem with his telescopes was their very narrow field of view, typically about half the width of the Moon
x6jnw TIL that people are buying used books from Goodwill and reselling them on Amazon as a full time job
BrXVK TIL barns are painted red because old paint recipes contained ferrous oxide (rust). Rust was plentiful on farms and because it killed fungi and mosses that might grow on barns, and it was very effective as a sealant. It turned the mixture red in color.
gVkA TIL that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, helped get two falsely accused men out of prison after solving their previously closed cases.