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TIL: The first person to build a programmable humanoid robot was the Arab Muslim scholar Abu Alîzz Al-Jazari in 1206 AD

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AN7ao TIL that in 1942, Nazi Germany was patrolling off the North Carolina coast, and a British ship was sunk defending the NC coast.
0wa7p TIL Beverly Hills in Australia was originally named Dumbleton. However, the local residents disliked that name, wanting something more glamorous, and in the 1930s decided to rename it Beverly Hills after the Californian home of numerous American movie stars.
PYpZG TIL one of the reasons why President Truman ordered the massive White House renovation in 1950 was that he nearly fell through the floors of his Residence in his bathub into a Daughters of the American Revolution reception in the Blue Room "wearing nothing but his reading glasses".
jYxR TIL that Sweden’s recycling program is so effective that 99% of household waste is recycled. Even its food waste is composted. Sweden even imports 700,000 tons of waste from other countries.
NXxXN TIL that McMurdo Station, the largest research community in Antarctica, is on an actively volcanic island