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TIL Eldey island supported the last remnant population of the great auks. Museums, desiring the skins of the auk for preservation and display, began collecting birds. The last pair, were killed there in 1844, when they were strangled and the last egg of the species was cracked during the struggle.

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8eA9K TIL Ethiopia acquired 3 Electric Chairs for capital punishment, but did not have enough reliable electricity to use them in practice. 2 of the chairs were converted to become garden furniture, the remaining was used by their Emperor as a throne.
OomvR TIL that the daily routine of Hunter S. Thompson began at 3 pm with cigarettes, cocaine and scotch, and he would begin writing at midnight whilst tripping on LSD, snorting excessive amounts of cocaine, smoking marijuana, drinking constantly and watching porn.
x6Vr7 TIL about a super modern €1.4bn nuclear power plant in Austria that never went into service, because a 50.47% majority in a referendum voted against it.. after it was built.
9awD TIL that United Airlines overbooked a young Golden Retriever’s connecting flight, while in their possession he was not given food or water, not allowed to relieve himself, and as a result he died.
DQgkD TIL about the 2004 disappearance of journalist Guy-André Kieffer, who was kidnapped & disappeared investigating extreme financial corruption & allegations of child labor used in the production of cocoa in Africa, going all the way up to the Ivorian first family of Côte d'Ivoire