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TIL that the alternative history novel “The Man in the High Castle” features a “novel within a novel”. While the actual book is about Nazis winning WWII, the in-book novel is about an alternate universe in which the Nazis lose the war.

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pYBGQ TIL that the rock climbing community has an agreed-upon difficulty scale they use to classify climbing routes. The highest difficulty level, 9C, has only been awarded to one route, named Silence, in central Norway. It was successfully climbed for the first and only time to date in 2018.
LGmQ TIL Ed Smith created a fake student called George Burdell when Georgia Tech sent him two enrolment forms by mistake. He signed Burdell up for all his classes and did all his work twice with minor changes so teachers wouldn’t catch him. The school awarded Burdell a bachelor’s and a master’s degree.
4vjN TIL Freddie Mercury adored cats, adopting most of his from rescue shelters. He gave them gourmet meals, Christmas stockings and talked to them over the phone when on tour.
oB7pA TIL the second American in space, Gus Grissom, suffered from severe hay fever and was nearly disqualified from the Astronaut Corps until it was discovered that pollen is nonexistent in space.
D1AZp TIL the Arizona Gazette ran a front page article in 1909 on two "Smithsonian-funded archaeologists" who discovered a massive underground cave city beneath the Grand Canyon. The city allegedly contained Egyptian hieroglyphics, mummies, and a Buddha-like statue. The Smithsonian refutes the claims.