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TIL of Karl P. Schmidt, a herpetologist who documented his own death after he was bitten by a juvenile boomslang snake. He made detailed notes on the symptoms he experienced, almost right up to the end. He died 24 hours after the bite, bleeding in his lungs, kidneys, heart, and brain.

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nWrdb TIL that Benjamin Franklin did not suggest a Turkey as the national bird of the US. He instead wrote a letter criticizing the use of a Bald Eagle as the icon of a fraternal society, claiming the bird was "lazy," "a rank coward," "of bad moral character," and that a Turkey was much more respectable.
MVA0 TIL Jimi Hendrix covered Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band live just three days after it was released, with Paul McCartney and George Harrison in the audience. It was never performed live by The Beatles.
kYOm TIL that Nero did not “fiddle” during the Great Fire of Rome. Upon hearing news of the fire, Nero rushed back to Rome to organize a relief effort. He opened his palaces to provide shelter for the homeless, arranging for food supplies to be delivered in order to prevent starvation among the survivors
kyV7 TIL The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake in Japan was so powerful it tilted the Earth’s axis 25 cm and changed the Earth’s rotation making days 1.8 microseconds shorter
16bM7 TIL a medieval chess piece orginally bought for £5 in 1964, then kept in a drawer for decades, sold for £735K in 2019. It was discovered the warder (equivalent to a rook) is one of the five major pieces (1 knight, 4 warders) missing from the 1831 Lewis chessman hoard of four 12th century chess sets.