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TIL that Mark Spitz jokingly told the 1972 Russian Olympic men’s swim team that mustaches increased speed in the water. The next year, every Russian sported one.

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NxJ TIL Foreign language translations had to change Tom Marvolo Riddle’s name so that an appropriate anagram could be formed from “I am Lord Voldemort.”
p6eO TIL Only two percent of people in the world have natural blond hair.
ZBXa TIL that Merlin the Wizard was possibly based on the legend of a real person, Myrddin Wyllt, a bard who went crazy watching the defeat and slaughter of his Celtic King Gwenddoleu and his army, and spent the rest of his life in the forest living among animals as a madman.
ADK6a TIL the plague that wiped out 50% of 14th Century Europe was never really eradicated. There is an average of 7 cases of plague every year in the US. The disease usually spreads through flea bites or by eating tainted meat. It usually hits the rural west of the US. (2:04)
6PMm TIL on July 30, 1971, the worst air disaster to that date occurred when a Fighter Pilot Trainee collided with a Boeing passenger jet over Japan. All 162 people aboard the jet died, but the fighter pilot ejected before impact and walked away unscathed.