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TIL The Americas was the British preferred location for prisoners, and it only became Australia until the US gained its independence.

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e1Wb TIL that in 1974 fundamentalist Christians in Kanawha County were so upset over “immoral” books like “Autobiography of Malcolm X” being introduced to local schools they dynamited a school, attacked school buses with shotguns, and planted a bomb at a school board member’s home.
1g5r TIL Led Zeppelin let Ben Affleck use “When the Levee Breaks” in Argo with condition he digitally alter the player’s needle drop to correct spot on the record
5V9Qr TIL that Rüppell's griffon vulture has the highest documented altitude of any bird at 36k feet. Unfortunately this information was discovered after a Boeing 747 took the bird into the engine over western Africa.
9Yvr7 TIL of the worst crash in motor sports history at the 1955 Le Mans race. A car broke apart and flew into the stands, with its hood decapitating spectators like a guillotine. In the aftermath, varying reports claim 65-120 were killed. The link contains graphic content.
4X9YJ TIL Russia is so large, that not only does it take up 1/8th of the land on Earth, but the country alone is bigger than the planet Pluto.