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TIL that in France in Sept. 1944, Technician Robert D. Maxwell threw himself on a grenade to save his fellow soldiers. Though badly injured, he survived and was awarded the Medal of Honor.

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d80XK TIL over 500,000,000 Indians or over 1/3 of their population are considered open defecators, meaning they defecate everywhere but a toilet(streets, fields, beaches). 22.6% of Indians with access to a toilet still choose to openly defecate out of preference
16JXr TIL That in 1774 James Cook charted Sandy Island off the coast of New Caledonia. Despite its' inclusion in official maps and charts for over two centuries in 2012 an Australian survey vessel proved the island had never actually existed and may have been a 'pumice raft' floating in the area.
DQNbp TIL about ‘The Pizza Meter’ which refers to sudden increases of pizza orders from U.S. government offices, such as the White House and The Pentagon, before large events such as the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the Panama Invasion, and the Grenada invasion.
rRZk0 TIL Astronomers from Johns Hopkins University, studying spectral analysis of over 200,000 galaxies, initially determined the average color of the universe to be a greenish white. Later study corrected this to a slight beige. A vote followed by press coverage christened the final color "Cosmic Latte"
b5Ea TIL that in the elections for mayor of Rio de Janeiro in 1988 the population was so unhappy with politicians, that a well-known monkey of the local zoo received over 400k votes.