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TIL that heirs to the throne of the Ottoman Empire were kept under house-arrest in the "Cage" from puberty until death (or becoming sultan), and it was common for a new sultan to have his brothers killed, including infants, sometimes dozens at once, to reduce the number of claimants to the throne.

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mx8av TIL that after the Colossus of Rhodes snapped at the knees and fell over onto the city after an earthquake, the remains lay untouched for over 800 years. Even broken, the Colossus was so impressive that many people travelled just to see the pieces.
QNQMe TIL that Colonel Sanders' mother was a devout Christian and strict parent, continuously warning her children of "the evils of alcohol, tobacco, gambling, and whistling on Sundays".
xVgWo TIL that one of the first recorded instances of the word "fuck" in its modern English meaning was in the court documents of a 14th-century case in reference to a man named in the documents as "Roger Fuckbythenavele".
X07dk TIL when Johnny Watson released his song “Space Guitar” in 1954, the song received a puzzled "??" instead of a numeric rating by Billboard. Today, the song is recognized as a groundbreaking achievement, which inspired musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Bo Diddley, and many more.
xVXr7 TIL James Smithson, the founding donor of the Smithsonian Institute, was English and never actually stepped foot in the United States. His reasoning behind leaving such a vast inheritance to a foreign country is unknown.