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194

Til Ben Franklin never wanted the wild turkey as the symbol of America, it was a satirical statement in a personal letter.

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M7BOa TIL Halloween started around 2,000 years from an ancient Celtic festival to celebrate the end of harvest season. The Gaels believed on Oct 31, the boundaries between the worlds of living and the dead got a little blurry and the dead would come back to life and wreak havoc among the living
d84Y9 TIL There's a family where every member has 12 fingers
kX8g TIL that only one person verified to have been born in the 19th century remains living today: Emma Morano of Italy, born November 29, 1899.
JYrrB TIL about Raven Wilkinson, the first African-American ballet dancer of a major ballet company. In 1957, Raven was once barred from staying with her troupe when an Atlanta hotel owner asked her outright if she was black. Raven quit dancing for a time, only to return to a 27 year career at NYC Opera.
X0PAE TIL The clarinet hit its peak in jazz during the Swing Era of the 30s and 40s but was replaced by the saxophone after the rise of bebop. Artists of the 40s and 50s considered the clarinet passé and unfashionable in jazz