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TIL that during the 1908 Olympics, marathon runners, including the winners, drank champagne, brandy, or strychnine cocktails, in the belief that it would provide energy. In 1924, the Paris games provided wine at rehydration stations.

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kOA6d TIL Robert E Lee was depressed during and after the civil war. After Gettysburg he walked around telling his soldiers "It's all my fault" and before his surrender he was observed to be deeply saddened, wandering aimlessly by himself, carrying a piece of chicken for which he could find no hunger
ANoPB Today I learned that after Pres Roosevelt died, 1st lady Eleanor planned to quit public service but Truman appointed her as a delegate to the U.N. General Assembly where she helped write the Universal Declaration of Human Rights-which she considered her greatest achievement.
v1vaL TIL new knitting patterns were banned in both world wars as a counter-measure to knitted coded messages
kJaw7 TIL that Cracker Jack is considered by some food historians to be the first junk food. It was introduced in 1896 along with the slogan “The more you eat, the more you want.”
NXE86 TIL over 20 million people were killed in Chinese Islamic insurgency in 1860s and 1870s under Qing dysnasty, one province lost 14 million and the neighboring province 6 million