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TIL Nasir ad-Din Tusi, a Persian polymath, developed a theory of evolution by natural selection 600 years before Darwin. He wrote that hereditary variability is the leading force of evolution, and that organisms which can change faster are ‘more variable’, thus giving them an advantage over others

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YpLWx TIL that Matthew and Maria Emanuel dug up a safe with $52,000 of cash and jewelry in their back yard but didn't keep it. Inside they found wet money, and a lot of jewelry, also a paper with their neighbors address. Eight years earlier their neighbors were robbed, so the couple returned everything.
6m8Z TIL that “Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band” reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in 1977 and is the biggest-selling instrumental single of all time.
MeKyV TIL that Steve Jobs was so good at applying his reality distortion field to convincing employees not to quit, that the original Macintosh motherboard designer planned to just walk into Steve's office and pee on his desk before he'd have the opportunity to convince him not to quit.
W7JLo TIL that Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in Space, was so inspired by Nichelle Nichols' portrayal of Lieutenant Uhura on Stark Trek that she began every shift of her 1992 Shuttle mission by radioing "Hailing Frequencies Open" as a tribute to the actress and her character.
EorX TIL Sugar Ray Robinson tried to back out of his title fight with Jimmy Doyle after having a dream that he killed him in the ring. A priest and minister convinced him not to back out, and Jimmy Doyle died the night of the fight after being knocked out in the eighth round.