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TIL in 1862 John Langdon Down was the first to describe a distinct mental disability, calling it "Mongoloidism" due to patients' thin eye shape and shorter stature. Now known as Down Syndrome, was discovered in the 1950s to be caused by the presence a third copy of chromosome 21.

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YjKW TIL George Lucas ‘ideally would love not to see any footage [of the newest Star Wars film: The Force Awakens] until he walks into the theater next December. He has never been able to be surprised by a Star Wars film before and he said he was looking forward to it.’
dLGK TIL when Tsar Nicholas II’s daughters were executed, the executioners struggled to kill them with gunshots, due to the fact that they were carrying 1.3kg of diamonds sewn into their clothing
P17ZZ TIL that an Australian man who lived by a cliff prevented at least 180 suicides in his 45 years of living there, by striking up a conversation with people contemplating suicide and inviting them to his house for tea.
X8aQ TIL: Studies show that wealthy people are less likely to recognize emotions in others and report feeling less compassion for others than their poorer counterparts
d84ZB TIL Simon. Simon was the ship's cat who served on the Royal Navy sloop HMS Amethyst. In 1949, during the Yangtze Incident, he received the PDSA's Dickin Medal after surviving injuries from a cannon shell, raising morale, and killing off a rat infestation during his service.