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TIL a common prank in the 1800s involved putting the end of a thread from a spool through a clothes seam and getting unsuspecting strangers to try to pull out what they think is a loose thread. The spool unwound as they pulled, and the prankster enjoyed a jolly good laugh.

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8oVV TIL of a black New York pastor in 1947 who decided to travel to Alabama in a turban and with a fake accent, posing as a foreign dignitary. His disguise allowed him in white-only areas, and he was treated with little discrimination.
ndKP TIL that the arcade video game Defender (1981) is so difficult that “Initial attempts lasting less than ten seconds are not uncommon for novices”.
lokdB TIL Queen Victoria was buried in a white dress and her wedding veil, alongside many mementos. Her late husband's dressing gown and a plaster cast of his hand was placed beside her, and a lock of her favourite servant John Brown's hair along with his photo was placed in her left hand.
xVvmD TIL a man named Theodore Coneys, AKA the Denver Spiderman, broke into a man’s house and hid in the attic. He ended up murdering the man, then continued to live in the attic for months during the murder investigation, while the murdered man’s wife still lived in the house
E1kY7 TIL that Bill Stone, one of the last five surviving WWI veterans, made multiple separate trips to rescue 1,000 men at Dunkirk although the first trip was "the worst experience of his life." His motto in life was "keep going." He died at age 108.