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TIL in the 1940s baseball umpires were called “guessers.” Anyone who questioned their calls were known as secondguessers, which is how the word second-guess was introduced to the English language.

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16y0W TIL the US once accidentally dropped two nuclear bombs on North Carolina, and one nearly detonated. The only thing that prevented a nuclear disaster was a single low-voltage safety switch.
Z4Do TIL that a birthday party invitation from 100 AD is the earliest known example of writing in Latin by a woman.
e0BBb TIL to verify the hypothesis that some Canadian drivers intentionally run over reptiles, research in 2007 found that 2.7% of drivers intentionally hit reptile decoys masquerading as snakes and turtles. Indeed, several drivers were observed speeding up and positioning their cars to hit the reptiles.
PYKGe TIL Even though a chess grandmaster can perfectly rearrange a midgame chessboard after seeing it for only 3 seconds, they can't do the same when the pieces are placed at random. They rely on a process called "chunking" (pattern recognition) vs common perception that they have photographic memories.
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