TIL that after Malcolm X’s assassination, the Audubon Ballroom was cleaned up and a party was held later that same night. [Source]

TIL Tamzin Merchant was originally cast to play Danaerys Targaryen in the unaired pilot of Game of Thrones. She was later replaced by Emilia Clarke when the pilot was poorly received and subsequently remade. [Source]

TIL that Amazon patented a wristband in 2018 that was designed to track warehouse workers’ hand movements in real time and direct them via vibrations. [Source]

TIL that the original iPhone that Steve Jobs famously showed on stage in 2007 barely worked and could only just get through the keynote. A stable, final version of the iPhone was not developed until just weeks before global release. [Source]

TIL that Dolly the Sheep was NOT the first cloned animal. Scientists had been cloning amphibians like frogs since the 1950s, 40 years before Dolly was born. [Source]

TIL that Hot Wheels and Matchbox — the two biggest rival toy car brands — are actually both owned by Mattel. [Source]

TIL that over third of people who called the Massachusetts Problem Gambling Hotline in 2023 were calling because they were having a technical problem with their betting apps and mistakenly believed that calling the Mass hotline would get them IT help. [Source]

TIL that the original pilot for “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (which later became “Charlie Has Cancer”) was shot on handheld camcorders on a budget of $200, though Charlie Day has since claimed it was essentially filmed for free. The show was later picked up by FX and has aired for 2 decades. [Source]

TIL the 2015 short "Kung Fury" had a full-length theatrical sequel that included Michael Fassbender and Arnold Schwarzenegger. It finished filming in 2019 but has been stuck in post-production ever since. [Source]

TIL In 1651, Jan De Doot, a man who disliked surgeons decided to take a knife and remove his own bladder stone with just some help from his brother. The feat made him famous across the Netherlands and he even had his portrait painted with him holding the egg-sized stone, which he had coated in gold [Source]

TIL that in the U.S., most paper money lasts less than 7 years before being destroyed and replaced due to wear. [Source]

TIL There is a fatal disease called Kuru that causes uncontrollable laughing and is transmitted through ritual cannibalism. [Source]

TIL there is a still (somewhat) active mafia group based in Kansas City [Source]

TIL: "Working cats" programs help unadoptable cats live a productive life as mousers [Source]

TIL the “Democracy Manifest” meme guy was a prison escape artist and was involved in a love triangle between his wife and “Australia’s Charles Manson,” the latter of whom killed his wife [Source]

TIL that before becoming an actor, Danny DeVito worked as a cosmetologist for dead bodies at a morgue, styling the hair of the deceased. He began this after a client of his died where he worked as a beautician at his sister's salon, and her family asked him to do her hair for her funeral. [Source]

TIL a woman named Lydia Abate has been "funeral tracking" for nearly 6 years — she scours obituaries to find recently deceased people, then offers grieving families a free estate clean-out service in exchange for keeping their dead relatives' vintage clothes. She hasn't bought clothes in years. [Source]

TIL about the Carnation Revolution where military officers organized a coup against their corporatist government, transforming Portugal into a democracy. [Source]

TIL that the Persian "Immortals" weren't called that because they couldn't die, but because their number was kept at exactly 10,000 at all times. If a soldier was killed or fell ill, he was immediately replaced, creating the illusion that the army never suffered casualties. [Source]

TIL that Johnny Cash would create a snare drum effect in the studio by putting a dollar bill under the strings of his guitar [Source]

TIL of Sabbatai Zevi who in the 17th century claimed he was the Messiah, leading to a significant portion of Jews world wide believing him. Only for him to end up converting to Islam. [Source]