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TIL NASCAR Legend Dale Earnhardt, along with many other NASCAR drivers, resisted use of the HANS device when it was introduced. The HANS was developed specifically to help prevent Basilar skull fractures common to car racing. Earnhardt later died after suffering this exact injury.

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XE4dE TIL that after the Ottomans entered Constantinople the Last Byzantine Emperor remarked that "The city is fallen and I am still alive." He tore off his imperial ornaments so to let nothing distinguish him from any other soldier and led his remaining soldiers into a last charge where he was killed
awwEN TIL in 1954, the Peanuts character "Pig-Pen" made his debut in a strip directly parodying Piggy from Lord of the Flies. He declares, "I haven't got a name ... people just call me things ... real insulting things".
YLa7 TIL When asked about his sex life during an interview, Marlon Brando said, “Like a large number of men, I, too, have had homosexual experiences and I am not ashamed. But if there is someone who is convinced that Jack Nicholson and I are lovers, may they continue to do so. I find it amusing.”
4GDN TIL that until the early 20th century, young boys wore dresses or gowns until around the age of 8, when they reached the age of breeching, an important rite of passage in the lives of small boys when they wore breeches or trousers for the first time.
e0P0E TIL that Mercury is the closest planet to Earth and to every other planet in the solar system most of the time.