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TIL That during the Vietnam War, the American navy laid thousands of sea mines in the waters off North Vietnam. In August of 1972 a solar storm caused 4,000 of them to spontaneously explode in just a few weeks.

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b9wR0 TIL John Corcoran graduated from highschool and college at a reading level of 2nd grade. In spite of this, he taught high school for 17 years and did real estate for 10 years without getting caught. At 48, he received tutoring from a volunteer literacy program, and became a literacy advocate.
W79dA TIL that a fictional language, Wenja, was created for Far Cry Primal by a team of linguists after Ubisoft deemed the 6,000 year old Proto-Indo-European to be too modern for the game's prehistoric setting.
D1aev TIL: Continental Cablevision broadcasted a T-shirt offer only to viewers who were obtaining the pay-per-view signal illegally. This was done by encoding the signal in a way only illegal decoders could decode. Those who responded were caught stealing cable.
R78Rw TIL that there's a mental disorder in which individuals may deliberately avoid having fun. It's commonly called Cherophobia.
8vJZ TIL That cigarettes (nicotine) are more addictive than cocaine, amphetamine pills, methadone, alcohol, and crystal meth. It is tied with crack cocaine for addictive qualities, and is only beaten out by heroin.