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TIL the Wright Bros, after numerous incident-free tests, were poised to make their pitch for the Army airplane contract. With Lt. Thomas Selfridge as passenger, the plane crashed, injuring Orville and killing Selfridge, resulting in the first airplane fatality. They received the contract anyway.

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9YXer TIL that, from 1933 to 1945, more than two-thirds of the faculty hired at many Historically Black Colleges and Universities were Jewish refugees who had come to the United States to escape from Nazi Germany.
vPRGL TIL of in 1748, the first known artificial refrigeration was demonstrated by William Cullen. But the history of the ice makers begins with Oliver Evans, an American inventor who designed the first refrigeration machine in 1805 because Mr. Cullen never used his discovery for practices.
6eRY TIL, Sir Issac Newton hated his mother and step-father; he even threatened to kill them with fire.
graD8 TIL the human stomach opens to the body's right. Thus, if you have acid reflux, you should lie on your LEFT, generally not on your right or on your back. [corrected source]
OZ5X TIL that an ancient Greek philosopher called Crysippus died of laughter while watching a drunk Mule try to eat from a fig tree