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TIL in 1864, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay teamed up to, in effect, almost wipe Paraguay off the face of the planet. In total, 60–70% of the population of Paraguay died as a result of the war, leaving a woman/man ratio of 4 to 1 (as high as 20 to 1, in the most devastated areas).

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bMXE TIL in 1992, a team of game developers used a white puffball as a placeholder graphic while they designed their game’s protagonist. They grew fond of the puffball, and decided to keep him rather than replace him with a real character. He became the iconic character Kirby.
78Gx7 TIL That one of the legs of The Stratosphere in Las Vegas has a bend in it that doesn’t affect structural integrity
DQ97J TIL that Matt Karedas (Samurai Cop) was served time for stealing a Rembrandt painting and had no idea about the movie's cult status.
mxLQR TIL that a woman discovered from watching TV that her current house was once owned by a serial killer who used to torture women in the basement
yVVj8 TIL the iconic Einstein-sticking-his-tongue-out photo was his annoyed reaction to paparazzi goading him to smile on his 72nd birthday. It achieved cult status mostly because Einstein himself asked for a cropped version, ordered many prints and proceeded to send them to friends.