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TIL that the distorted power chord sound of “You Really Got Me” by The Kinks was achieved when guitarist Dave Davies slashed the speaker on his amp with a razor blade. This sound went on to influence heavy metal and punk rock.

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4XLeb TIL the Haskell Free Library is the only library to operate in 2 countries on the US/Canada border. It has 2 entrances, one on each country and is a transnational space where citizens from both countries can enter without a passport.
x6MRo TIL about Thomas Cranmer, a Catholic priest who helped lead the English Reformation under Henry VIII and Edward VI. He even secretly married in Germany before it was allowed. When Mary I took power, she reversed the reforms, branded him a heretic, and had him burned at the stake.
X0woD TIL in his autobiographical account of taking on monopolies, Roosevelt recounted: “...we had come to the stage where for our people what was needed was a real democracy; and of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of a plutocracy.”
nWrdb TIL that Benjamin Franklin did not suggest a Turkey as the national bird of the US. He instead wrote a letter criticizing the use of a Bald Eagle as the icon of a fraternal society, claiming the bird was "lazy," "a rank coward," "of bad moral character," and that a Turkey was much more respectable.
neB5o TIL that "Ironman Triathlon" is a brand name owned by the World Triathlon Corporation, which was bought by the Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group for $650 million in 2015.