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TIL of a "Bezoar", the accumulation of ingested material such as hair, fur or fiber in the stomach that forms a large stone. Once prized as magical items with protective properties. There was a gold-framed bezoar in the Crown Jewels of Queen Elizabeth I as recently as 1962.

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4kK8b TIL that preflight checklists were introduced after a 1935 crash of a prototype B-17 which resulted in the deaths of both pilots. Investigation found that the pilots forgot to disengage the gust locks prior to take off.
VMnD0 TIL Mark Spitz, a 9 time Olympic Champion jokingly told the Russian swim team coach in 1972 that his moustach increased his speed in the water, deflecting water away from his mouth. The next year, every Russian swimmer was sporting one.
EwoV TIL Freddie Mercury spent his last months recording as many vocals as he could for the rest of Queen to finish after his death
jNBBE TIL that in the War of the Triple Alliance, Paraguay lost over 90% of it's entire male population. Paraguayan women ended up outnumbering men with ratios of 4:1 or even 20:1 in some regions. As a result, the local catholic church authorized polygamy to rebuild the population
4XpxJ TIL of the horseshoe theory, in which the far right and the far left in fact closely resemble one another (tendency to support authoritarian governments, etc), such that the political continuum resembles a horseshoe rather than a linear line.