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TIL Fred Rogers proposed to his wife Joanne via letter. When she received it, Joanne rushed to a payphone to respond. She was so nervous that when Fred answered the phone she was focused on the phone booth graffiti and greeted him by saying, "Shit." Fred laughed and she agreed to marry him.

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R7dm9 TIL that in the 19th century the theory that bad smells spread disease was widely accepted, therefore the population dumped human waste and garbage into the river to minimize odor in the streets. A particularly hot summer in London, 1858 caused what became known as "The Great Stink of 1858"
kOZLe TIL in the 1990s, a Russian mafia and Italian mafia organization participated in a literal money-laundering scheme, washing and bleaching the ink out of US$1 bills and reprinting them as $100s, for use in the post-Soviet bloc countries, where the bills might avoid detection as counterfeits.
V7KB TIL Project MARAUDER, a coaxial plasma railgun powered by the SHIVA STAR capacitor bank, was designed by the USAF and capable of “[producing] doughnut shaped rings of plasma and balls of lightning that exploded with devastating effects when hitting its target.” It was classified in 1993.
xVJW7 TIL the Supreme Court case which created the "fire in a crowded theater" quote was about draft protesters being arrested, and it was overturned more than 40 years ago.
1aOAX TIL Benny Medina created The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air after growing up poor in East LA. His life changed when he befriended a rich white teenager, whose family lived in Beverly Hills and allowed Medina to live with them. Medina decided to change the rich white family to a rich black family.