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TIL that in Turkmenistan, colors themselves are considered state enemies. Only white cars are allowed in the capital. Cars that are not white are forbidden from the streets of Ashgabat, the non-white vehicles taken from the owners as hostages and forcibly painted white no matter what.

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b6lmZ TIL about Ahn Changho. He and his wife were the first married Korean couple to immigrate to the US in 1902. He is credited with co-writing South Korea’s national anthem, and two of his sons, Philip Ahn and Ralph Ahn, went on to be actors in Hollywood
LQX70 TIL the earliest existing record of a telescope was a 1608 patent submitted to the government in the Netherlands by Middelburg spectacle maker Hans Lipperhey. The actual inventor is unknown but word of it spread through Europe. Galileo heard about it and, in 1609, built his own version.
OG9oR TIL Galileo tracked sunspot movements and discovered that the Sun rotates. It is now known that sunspots close to the equator rotate once each 25 days and sunspots near the poles rotate each 38 days
nDZW TIL that Vicki Lawrence in high school wrote a fan letter to Carol Burnett noting their close resemblance. Burnett—who was looking for an actress to play her younger sister for a new show—hired Lawrence, beginning her long television career.
X0YEQ TIL Marottichal a village in India was rife with alcoholism and illicit gambling, but everything changed after one man taught the town to play chess. Miraculously, the game’s popularity flourished while drinking and gambling declined.