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TIL The first spam email was sent in 1978 by Gary Thuerk, a marketing manager at Digital Equipment Corporation. He sent an unsolicited message to 400 recipients on ARPANET, the precursor of the internet, promoting a new computer system.

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j6N1a TIL of the Battle of May Island, a series of accidental collisions during WWI among Royal Navy vessels that resulted in 2 destroyed submarines, 3 damaged subs, 1 damaged cruiser, and 105 total deaths. No enemy forces were present.
ADpM7 TIL that János Bolyai, one of the discoverers of non-Euclidean geometry, won thirteen pistol duels in a single afternoon, playing his violin between each of them.
awWbA TIL Friederike Bruning visited India in 1978 to look for a guru, but ended up staying after buying a cow at a neighbor’s insistence. She started a cowshed for abandoned animals and has since saved over 1,800, earning the name “Sudevi Mataji”.
aw4Bb TIL Stewart Adams, who recently died at the age of 95, discovered ibuprofen while trying to cure an hangover.
ARjn TIL that in 2012 a Manchester couple jokingly invited Queen Elizabeth to their wedding, the Queen accepted and made an appearance along with Prince Philip.