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TIL: in march 1989 an asteroid passed through the exact position where Earth was only six hours earlier.

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v10a7 TIL of St. Martin de Porres - the Catholic patron saint of mixed-race people, barbers, innkeepers, public health workers, and all those seeking racial harmony. He was the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman, Don Juan de Porres and Ana Velázquez, a free woman of African-Native American descent.
x6a71 TIL of the 1937 School Explosion in New London, Texas. 294 died, mostly students in Grades 5 thru 11. Although the richest independent school district in the U.S, to save money the school board put a leaky tap on an oil company's production residue gas line, leading to the explosion from a spark.
ryOM TIL there exist humans with four cones in their eyes (tetrachromats) that can perceive color differences the rest of us cannot. Because it is based on a gene variation of the X chromosome, it is believed that only women can be tetrachromats.
LkZ TIL: Howard Hughes used to make hotel staff hide sandwiches for him in trees
8eMGG TIL The common electric eel, electrophorus electricus, is not actually an eel, but a type of knifefish. Their shape evolved independently of true eels.