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TIL of viruses that attack bacteria called ‘bacteriophages'. The term phage originates from Greek phagein, which translates as ‘to eat'. A single phage injects its genome into a bacterial cell, switching the cells' program in its favor. The host cell eventually dies, releasing about 100 new phages.

e0L5n TIL that President Jefferson partly organized the Lewis & Clark expedition because he believed that there were still mastodons wandering wild in the Western US.
E7Bo TIL During World War 2, Allied submarines would lie on beds of pistol shrimp. The snapping sound made by the shrimp was so loud, it stopped the submarines from being picked up on Japanese sonar.
ZYG4 TIL there is an island called North Sentinel Island, and it is home to an small, ancient tribal civilization called the Sentinelese. They are one of the last groups on the planet to be virtually untouched by modern civilization and are known to murder those who get too close to their island.
GA9E TIL of the Holodomor, the man made famine inflicted upon the Ukrainians by the Soviets in 1932/33. Western governments ignored it due to the desire to gain the Soviets as an ally in trade and war. By the 1937 census, 11,000,000 Ukrainians were no longer present. Some left, but most starved to death.
xVWEB TIL of Jean de Selys Longchamps, a Belgian aristocrat who flew with the RAF during World War II. After learning that his father had been murdered by the Nazis, he flew to Brussels and machine gunned the Gestapo headquarters. He was demoted for insubordination but also awarded a medal for heroism