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969

TIL of “Slug Bug”, an American custom in which the first person to see a Volkswagen Beetle can punch anyone near them on the shoulder.

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ep6WE TIL Caravaggio, pioneer of baroque art, had an extensive criminal record, most of it related to brawls and physical assault. He went on the run after being sentenced to beheading for murder, at which point his paintings repeatedly feautured severed heads, often his own
p8nA8 TIL that in 1922 a suitcase containing almost everything the young Ernest Hemingway had written up to that time was stolen in a train station in Paris. No trace of this suitcase has ever been discovered, despite the fact that the unpublished stories it contained would be incredibly valuable.
OGgea TIL that an undefined number of rats, accused of destroying barley crops in 16th-century France, had a lawyer named Barthélemy de Chasseneuz. He cleverly sought delays, citing rats' age and health, and convinced the town to curfew their cats, but lost as the cats still ate the rats.
XEN1X TIL about Room 8, a neighborhood cat who wandered into a classroom in 1952 at an elementary school California. He lived in the school during the school year and then disappeared for the summer, returning when classes started again. This pattern continued without interruption until the mid-'60s.
VBMA0 TIL In WW1, artist Johannes Koelz received an Iron Cross for bravery in rescuing a comrade from behind enemy lines. Years later he fell out of favour with the Nazis, but the man they sent to arrest him was the very man whose life he'd saved, and he allowed Koelz 48 hours to escape