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TIL that in 1978, Reinhold Messner reached the summit of Mt Everest without using supplementary oxygen, a task which had previously been considered impossible. Two years later, he did it again by himself, completing the first solo ascent of the mountain

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kdd TIL that the Star Wars theme was released as a single with the Cantina song, and reached number 1 on the U.S. Hot 100 in 1977.
0dkNM TIL that the Battle of Santa Clara, which was decisive in Fidel Castro's rise to power in Cuba, was won by bulldozing an armoured train full of supplies and armoured personnel carriers. Today some of the derailed cars and the bulldozers are on display near the Santa Clara station.
6vEl TIL law enforcement and the entire concept of a ‘police force’ is a very new historical concept. Outside of private guards and community vigilantism, policing did not even exist until 1707 in Great Britain - and it was 1829 before police were established in London.
loye1 TIL about a cow named "Emily" who escaped from a slaughterhouse in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. The local newspapers reported her often been running with a herd of deer. Later, during her stay in sanctuary at the Peace Abbey, she became a representative of "animal rights" and "vegetarianism".
rN6Z0 TIL Ice-T made up a gang to keep real gang members off his back in high school. “We actually created a fake gang. We told people we were part of the Hillside Crips. We had them thinking there was hundreds of us. I never had any trouble.”