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TIL James Longstreet, one of the most skilled confederate generals in the civil war, later felt so guilty that he became a civil rights advocate and led a militia of black soldiers. Today he is remembered as a traitor in the South

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woaM TIL in 2004, The New York Times wrote an article about the loneliest whale in the world. Scientists have been tracking her since 1992 and they discovered the problem: she sings at 52hz, and so no other whales can hear her.
JYb18 TIL In 1964, Muhammad Ali threw his Olympic Gold Medal into the Ohio River as an Act of Protest against Racism.
l70Zr TIL in 2007 an FBI agent posing as AP reporter sent a fake article link to a 15 y/o suspected of bomb threats. A tracking tool revealed his location and helped the agents confirm his identity. This later resulted to lawsuits by the press against the FBI and led to a $145k settlement in 2014
5j5n TIL that the captain of a United flight had a heart attack mid-flight, and so an off-duty air force captain, Mike Gongol, had to help land the plane, saving 160 lives. He knew he had to help when he heard the PA announcement “are there any non-revenue pilots on board, please ring your call button.”
ZOED TIL that in South Africa,2009, an employee of an IT company complained that data would get transferred faster by carrier pigeon than on ASDL. Winston the pigeon armed with 4gb memory stick took two hours to carry the data 60 miles - in the same time the ADSL had sent 4% of the data.