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TIL Arnold Schwarzenegger did not attend his father’s funeral because it was in conflict with a body building competition. The competition was two months away.

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Xa1D TIL that lobster was so plentiful in the 1800s that Massachusetts servants demanded a clause in their contracts to prevent being fed it more than 3 times a week
4mGN TIL that in 2005, security guards at Australia’s Parliament House were banned from calling people ‘mate’. The ban lasted one day.
dDX9Q TIL The modern Western salute originated in France when knights greeted each other to show friendly intentions by raising their visors to show their faces (according to some modern military manuals, though the history is uncertain and other theories exist)
j66AE TIL In the first half of the 20th century, state sponsored campaigns dynamited roosting areas, taking large numbers of American Crows. A campaign in Oklahoma from 1934 to 1945 dynamited 3.8 million birds.
DQoYV TIL about the ancient Mesopotamian practice of using a substitute king to protect the real king from evil omens. The real king would go into hiding, and rites were performed to transfer the danger onto the substitute. At the end of the ritual, the substitute is put to death.