› added 10 years ago

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TIL a man named James Harrison pledged to donate blood once he turned 18 after needing 13 liters of blood during a major chest surgery at 13. It was discovered that his blood contained a rare antigen which cured Rhesus disease. He has donated blood more than 1,000 times, saving over 2,000,000 lives.

KYMbR TIL that ligers (the offspring of a male lion and female tiger) are the largest big cat because, unlike lionesses, female tigers do not possess growth-limiting genes to counter the growth-maximising genes of male lions.
JrB1 TIL In 2000, amid rampant rumors that Pokemon was the work of the devil, the Pope gave his blessing to Pokemon calling it “full of inventive imagination” and that it did not have “any harmful moral side effects.”
Kjdw TIL that in a secret 1960 operation, the CIA stole the Russian satellite Lunik overnight completely disassembling, examining, and reassembling it within 12 hours, and returned it in the morning without the Russians knowing - possibly changing the outcome of the space race.
jQkX TIL that the creator of the Operation board game never received royalties for the game and was not able to afford his own surgery until friends and fans raised money for him online.
ayNA TIL that Abraham Lincoln was an elite wrestler in his days before politics. He once challenged a crowd, saying, “I’m the big buck of this lick. If any of you want to try it, come on and whet your horns.ā€ The challenge went unanswered.