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TIL a surgeon diagnosed himself with acute appendicitis while part of a Russian expedition to Antarctica in 1961. With no other options, he performed the surgery on himself over 2 hours.

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OleL TIL environmental activist group Greenpeace once accidentally released a fact sheet which said “In the twenty years since the Chernobyl tragedy, the world’s worst nuclear accident, there have been nearly [FILL IN ALARMIST AND ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE]”.
oBMvE TIL The most expensive domain name ever sold was www.business.com sold for a whopping 345 million USD
xVVJ1 TIL at the 1964 World's Fair, IBM passed over their computers to showcase the electric typewriter, which they thought would be more innovative and revolutionary.
KYKD4 TIL the great grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt wanted a racetrack for the Vanderbilt cup, the first major racing cup. The cup used to race on residential roads but two spectators were killed so he built the Long Island Motor Parkway but before long 2 riding mechanics were killed so racing was banned
ADeOd TIL Godzilla was originally created as a metaphor for the the relationship between humans and nuclear weapons. Its skin is not based on reptile scales but the burn wounds found on the survivors of the Hiroshima bombing.