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TIL Stephen Hawking is believed to be the longest living person ever with ALS at 55 years since diagnosis. ALS can kill in months, with less than 20% living past 10 years.

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XdLr TIL In one day of heavy fighting during the Battle of Stalingrad, a local railway station changed hands from Soviet to German control and back again 14 times in 6 hours
LkjjP TIL that begging in Hong Kong is illegal and has a maximum penalty of HKD 500 (USD 64) and one-year imprisonment
69LdZ TIL the version of "Earth Angel" by The Penguins that became an unexpected hit had only been recorded by the band as a literal garage demo; drums on the track were muffled with pillows so as to not overwhelm the vocals. A neighbour's pet dog stopped many takes by barking.
pkd8 TIL that a 19th century governor of Greece introduced potatoes to the country. Initially, he tried giving seed potatoes to skeptical farmers. When this failed, he piled them in public under guard, convincing people of their value. They stole the potatoes and planted them.
7DwL TIL scientists attached stilts to the legs of ants to prove that ants return to their nests by counting their steps. The ants with stilts overshot their nest by roughly 50% due to the new length of their steps.