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TIL about Len Koenecke, a Brooklyn Dodgers outfielder who died in 1935 from a blow to the head when he tried to seize control of an airplane

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yPOa TIL that Ingo Potrykus, the co-inventor of golden rice (a genetically engineered, vitamin-A-rich strain of rice that could save millions of lives in developing countries), has called for his product to be distributed for free to poor farmers.
PY4xn TIL the Berlin Wall came down by mistake. When the East Germans planned to slowly open the border they announced it at a press conference without including a plan. When a reporter asked when it would be opened, the party official mistakenly said "Immediately, without delay" causing a run on the wall
xvXk TIL that Bill Murray had no scripted lines in the movie Caddyshack. He improvised everything. “With the Dalai Lama scene, they just sort of tossed me in there – there wasn’t much of anything. I just took it and ran away with it…Improvising about golf was easy for me.”
P1A9Z TIL A breakthrough in kidney stone treatment will allow them to be expelled without invasive surgery, using a handheld device. NASA has been funding the technology for 10 years, and it's one of the last significant issues in greenlighting human travel to Mars.
4k985 TIL An award worth between 15 and 30 percent of the total proceeds that IRS collects will be paid, if the IRS moves ahead based on the information provided. Under the law, these awards will be paid when the amount identified by the whistleblower is more than $2 million.