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TIL At a radiology conference in 1974, Lee Rogers, a physician who had mistakenly swallowed a soda can tab during a basketball game, addressed the hazard to the medical community, which lead to a redesign of a non-removable tab that reduced untold amounts of litter and injury to humans and wildlife.

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eppKk TIL in 1972 a traveling circus set up in the village of Uquakwa, IL. Overnight, their elephant was tethered to a tree in the park. Lightning struck and killed the elephant. The panicked Circus owners packed up all of their gear, and scurried out of town, leaving the 6500 lb dead Pachyderm behind.
nevGY TIL the FBI caught one of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers after he returned to the Ryder from which he rented the truck used to carry the bomb, wanting the $400 deposit back because his truck was "stolen".
7r7N7 TIL in 1817 an English man named Abraham Thornton successfully avoided a murder charge by demanding "trial by battle." It turned out that the practice was still technically allowed under the law despite having not been used for hundreds of years. Parliament finally abolished it one year later.
69M1J TIL darker skin people need more sunlight to make vitamin D. One experiment where a light skinned person was in sunlight for 8 hours saw their vitamin D concentration go up by 50x while a dark skinned person saw no change. They needed 5-10 times the sunlight length and then only saw a 30x change.
VXP4 TIL NASA will text you whenever the International Space Station passes overhead