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TIL in 1888, an undertaker named Almon Strowger conceived of a device that could automatically connect phone calls. He thought that manual switchboard operators were interfering with his business; he wanted to bypass them. The 'Strowger' switch would go on to see wide usage into the 20th century

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xV8Rk TIL of Matvey Kuzmin, known as 'Lone Wolf', the oldest person to be awarded Hero of the Soviet Union. During WW2, a Nazi battalion paid him to lead them to the rear of Russian defenses. Instead, he led the battalion directly into an ambush. Realizing his betrayal, the Nazis killed him. He was 83.
e0Ojn TIL that the US has a submarine base in a lake in Idaho.
YpX0G TIL Uranus and Neptune are not "Gas Giants" as is commonly believed, but belong to a separate category of giant planets called "Ice Giants." This is because less than 20% of their mass is made up of hydrogen and helium. True gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn are over 90% hydrogen and helium.
4X4Qa TIL that Frank Goldsmith, Jr., a Titanic survivor who later lived near Navin Field (Tiger Stadium) in Detroit, never took his children to baseball games because the roar of the crowd reminded him of the screams of people dying in the freezing water.
X01QQ TIL Frank Sinatra didn’t actually sing on beat but instead he would sing “around the music”