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TIL Dennis Ritchie, who invented the C programming language, co-created the Unix operating system, and is largely regarded as influencing a part of every software system we use on a daily basis, died 1 week after Steve Jobs. Due to this, his death was largely overshadowed and ignored.

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lorZa TIL from 1843 to 1937, French shepherds traveled on stilts to keep track of their sheep and watch for wolves. Detailed story and pictures in comments.
kJPoW TIL that trains have sandboxes which dispense sand immediately in front of the drive wheels to give the locomotive traction on steep or slippery rails.
xvv1 TIL according to Norse mythology, the wolf Fernir was so powerful that dwarves created a special binding made of the roots of a mountain, the sound of a cat’s footfall, the beard of a woman, and the breath of a fish to tie him down…this is why these things no longer exist in the world
9Y9Nm TIL of the Yaghan, the people inhabiting the southernmost tip of the world. Despite extreme cold, they used to wear no clothing and instead lit many fires. This caused passing European ships to call their land the "land of fires".
7ro1O TIL Scientists exploring the Abanda caves in Gabon discovered a unique group of crocodiles. They are almost blind due to living in total darkness, permanently soaked in a toxic mix of bat feces and water which turned their skin orange. They adapted to a diet of bats crickets