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TIL Suriname, which has the highest percentage of Muslims in the Americas, has two different groups of Muslims from India and present-day Indonesia who preyed to Mecca in completely different directions as they entered and settled in Suriname via the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans respectively

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dGMr TIL that Canada’s new Governor General-designate is an astronaut, spent time on the ISS, speaks 6 languages, did research at the IBM lab in Zurich, played piano and sang with several orchestras, and has helped make space robots.
JYnJ8 TIL that jazz legend Dave Brubeck was nearly expelled from college because he could not read music. The college was afraid it would cause a scandal, and agreed to let Brubeck graduate only after he had promised to never teach piano.
YpPbd TIL During a 1989 Christmas television broadcast, Santa Claus encouraged all children to hold the phone to the TV, tricking them into dialing a 1-900 number that automatically charged several dollars to their parents' phone bill.
PYjmL TIL in 1965 CIA tried placing a nuclear powered sensing device atop Mt.Nanda Devi in India, to spy on Chinese nuclear testing, only to loose it within an year and it hasn't been recovered yet. Couple of years later the device was placed atop Mt. Nanda Kot instead.
wPV6 TIL the company that makes coral snake antivenom in the USA decided it was unprofitable and stopped producing it in 2003. The USA’s stock of coral snake antivenom expired in 2008 but the FDA has extended the date ever since to keep what is left available to the public.