› added 10 years ago

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TIL that Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis dropped the mortality rate for childbirth from 12% to 2% after he insisted doctors wash their hands in between handling cadavers and delivering babies.

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PNZL TIL many Rabbis and historians now believe Abraham, the Jewish patriarch, probably never existed. Nor did Moses. The entire Exodus story as recounted in the Bible probably never occurred.
bQRE TIL Former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il once claimed to have invented hamburgers
MeeWK TIL that as a part of his celibacy experiments, Mahatma Gandhi used to sleep nude with his young female companions which included his 17 year old grand-niece Mridula Gandhi
LYnp TIL of the only real Space Gun; the TP-82, a Russian triple barreled, break action shotgun/rifle/machete combo for fighting and hunting wildlife after a Cosmonaut touches down in Siberia.
0d1YR TIL that Chang and Eng Bunker, not only were the original "Siamese twins," but after traveling the world and making a pretty penny from exhibiting themselves, settled in North Carolina, became U.S. citizens, bought/owned slaves, and married two sisters whom they produced 21 children with.