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5

TIL that in his 1933 novel, The Shape of Things to Come, acclaimed science fiction writer H.G. Wells predicted a second world war would begin in January 1940—just four months off from the actual start on September 1, 1939.

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a8PmN TIL Napoleon had planned an invasion of the UK but it was never carried out. Preparations were financed by the sale of the Louisiana territory to the US which the US financed with a loan from a British bank, so Britain was indirectly funding an invasion of itself.
7rjL TIL that it is still possible to lease a rotary phone from AT&T
Q6E6 TIL in 2009, David Booth, a park ranger in Scotland, packed up his metal detector, drove to a field, and scored big. His first sweep yielded 4 gold neck bands, from the first century B.C.—the most important hoard of Iron Age gold found in Scotland to date.
KOjYE TIL to avoid being targets of violence, reporters notebooks took on a smaller format in the Civil Rights Movement and it stuck
QYQX TIL: A woman with Type 1 diabetes underwent an islet cell transplant. Since the transplant, her glucose levels have remained at a healthy level, and she was taken off insulin and has no dietary restrictions. “She is like a nondiabetic person but requires antirejection drugs,”