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TIL Julie Moss was a surprise front runner of the 1982 Ironman Triathlon but collapsed several times and lost bowel control near the end as millions watched on TV. She was surpassed by a rival and crawled to the finish line. Her "agony of defeat" moment caused a surge in popularity for the sport.

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N7BlP TIL of Fritz Suhren, a concentration camp commandant. When the allies were close, he took Odette Sansom, an inmate whom he believed to be Churchill's niece, and drove with her to the US base, hoping it would save him. She was in fact a British spy under a false name. He was hanged in 1950
1amlD TIL that at the age of 31, Charlie Munger was broke, divorced, and had just buried his 9-year-old son who died from leukemia. Today, Munger is Warren Buffet's "right-hand man," a billionaire and says "Self-pity is not going to improve the situation...however bad it is, just fix it as best you can."
Z8lZa TIL in 1973, two men went to police claiming to have been abducted by aliens. The police thought they were lying, so they left them alone in the room with a secret recording device. To their surprise, they kept on talking about what happened and how scared they were.
0mgA TIL Gandhi waves around nukes in Civilization because a glitch in Civ 1 (where Gandhi’s aggressive stat, set at 1, became negative upon completion of democracy) and since -1 was not a stat the game reverted it to the maximum aggressive stat, and that’s how Gandhi became a warmonger.
ooQL TIL that in 1921, workers at an ammonium nitrate factory tried clearing a clogged silo with dynamite. The resulting explosion killed 500 people and left 6500 homeless.