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TIL that the name Vanessa was invented by Jonathan Swift (author of Gulliver's Travels) as a nickname for his lover Esther Vanhomrigh

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Orye TIL in the ancient Olympics, false-starters were whipped
4ke8w TIL the most densely populated megacity is Manila, Philippines with over 41,000 people per square km - nearly four times as dense as New York City.
vPjYR TIL that Hitler's surname was a clerical mistake. Alois Schicklgruber, Adolf's father, sought to change his last name to his stepfather's, Hiedler. Authorities mistakenly recorded it as "Hitler", thus etching this infamous name into history
JXOB TIL Jack Abernathy was known as “Catch-‘em-alive Jack” because he would catch wolves by jumping off a horse, shoving his hand in the wolf’s mouth so it was unable to bite down, and holding it down until it became docile. He performed this trick for Teddy Roosevelt during a hunt in Oklahoma in 1905.
aw8JA TIL reindeer abandoned use of the daily clock that drives biological rhythms in order to survive the extreme conditions in the Arctic