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TIL: During the Civil War the British never officially backed the south but did run goods to the South through the blockade and by providing the Confederate States Navy with ships.

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YwMr TIL Stephen King gave a rave review of the film “The Evil Dead”, which helped convince New Line Cinema to serve as its distributor. King called it “most ferociously original film of the year,” which attracted the interest of critics who otherwise would likely have dismissed the low-budget thriller.
WkaJd TIL that the former ruler of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov (also called Turkmenbashi), outlawed beards, lip syncing, and gold teeth because all three annoyed him.
XvZX TIL when the Vanessa Williams Miss America scandal was breaking, Hugh Hefner was offered the nude photos. He turned them down saying “There was never any question of our interest. But they clearly weren’t authorized and because they would cause considerable embarrassment, we decided not to publish.”
YpQyd TIL that Kazakhstan is Europe's 14th-largest country by area, larger than 37 European countries (including Greece, Bulgaria, Iceland, Hungary, Portugal, or Austria) - even though almost 95% of the country is in Asia
pmlO TIL I learned that a financial investigator proved mathematically that Bernie Madoff was a fraud in 2000, 9 years before his pyramid scheme collapsed