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TIL A WWII messenger pigeon named GI Joe was awarded a bravery medal for “Making the 20 mile flight from British 10th Army HQ, in the same number of minutes … just in time to save the lives of at least 100 Allied soldiers” 31 other pigeons have been awarded for bravery during service.

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M7N88 TIL DNA scientist James Watson's first interest was bird watching and he entered the University of Chicago at 15 under the gifted youngster program. He initially to become an ornithology curator but then he read Erwin Schrödinger's book: What is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell
MevK8 TIL that in the 1800s, mental asylum staff thought it would be a good idea to add a tall stone lookout tower that mentally ill patients could climb up for 'breathtaking views'. Many patients committed suicide by jumping out the tower's open windows.
VMm5B TIL that famed composer of musicals (i.e. Cats, Phantom of the Opera, and Evita) Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote his first full-length musical at age 17.
nW8Q7 TIL that in 2011, an entire country lost internet access for 12 hours after a 75-year-old woman accidentally broke a fiber-optic line with her shovel.
woK0W TIL "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" is an example of an impossible task. The idiom dates at least to 1834, from the Workingman's Advocate: "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots.