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TIL that Hummingbirds are the only known species of bird that can fly backwards

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l7lG7 TIL that King Edward Point, the capital of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, is the smallest capital in the world by population, having a population of between 12 and 22, depending on the season.
9YOym TIL that the term “mental retardation” which we now deem “inappropriate”, was a medical term for people with intellectual impairments, invented to replace terms that were more offensive. The American Association on Mental Retardation introduced it to be a neutral term in 1961.
4X98g TIL of the Warren Harding Effect - when we make unconscious assumptions about a person or people and hang on to them even when presented with evidence to the contrary. In the early 1920s, Warren Harding looked so presidential that voters were fooled into thinking he’d make a good president.
wBoo TIL the Spanish have a tradition consisting of eating a grape with each bell strike at midnight of December 31
Z8Y9G TIL during the 1992 L.A. riots, police officers asked the accompanying U.S. Marines to cover them while searching a house for a suspect that held his wife and children hostage. Mistaking the statement "cover them" for suppressive fire, the Marines promptly fired 200 rounds into the house.