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TIL Al Capone contracted syphilis when he was 20, which is thought to have contributed to his fatal heart attack at 48.

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Egl67 TIL that the Society for the Prevention of Useless Giving was founded in New York in 1912 to oppose pointless Christmas gifts and the custom of employees giving expensive presents to bosses. It reached 6,000 members, with Theodore Roosevelt as its first male member, before fading during WWI.
jNRKE TIL that the Turkish Embassy in DC played a vital role in desegregating Jazz scene. Two teenage sons of the ambassador would often organize events in the embassy inviting black and white artists to perform together. One of these sons went on to start Atlantic Records.
9wDpB TIL both Taco Bell and Domino’s Pizza faced crushing defeats in their cuisines’ homelands. Taco Bell was rejected in Mexico for its unrecognizable food and high prices, while Domino’s was driven out of Italy by fierce competition from authentic pizzerias and its bland, non-traditional pizzas.
x6pEb TIL in 1952, Navy LT Jimmy Carter led a team of nuclear scientists in disassembling a Canadian nuclear reactor undergoing meltdown. Carter, alongside others, personally lowered himself into the reactor to disassemble it by hand, exposing himself to one thousand times the level of safe radiation.
OJN6 TIL in 2009, Colorado initiated its Family Planning Initiative to provide low-to-no cost birth control to 68 family clinics around the state. Between 2009 and 2013, the state’s teen birth rate dropped by 40%.