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TIL that Anton Chekhov's play The Cherry Orchard, contains two loaded guns which are never fired. This goes against Chekhov's own narrative principle known as Chekhov's Gun, which states that all elements in a story must be necessary.

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9YgVX TIL that people used to watch horses dive off a 40 foot platform into a pool of water, sometimes with a rider, for entertainment. On average two injuries to riders occured every year. At least one horse drowned.
VBJ4G TIL Benjamin Franklin ran the first placebo-controlled blind experiment. In 1782 King Louis XIV hired a group of scientists to investigate Franz Anton Mesmer's medical practices. Mesmer's cures were tried against nothing/fake treatments and ultimately the fakes worked as well as the 'real' cures.
X0Zoj TIL in 2000, Galoob Toys Inc. recalled about 8.9 million Sky Dancers flying dolls after receiving reports of injures which resulted from the doll striking adults and children, such as scratched corneas, broken teeth, a mild concussion, a broken rib, and facial lacerations that required stitches
JYrB TIL that schizophrenics are much less likely than non-schizophrenics to recognize the sound of their own voice.
kODp4 TIL a truck carrying six torpedoes overturned in Denver causing an eight hour traffic jam after no one picked up the emergency number with the Navy and the Army couldn't find anyone to fly an EOD team.