› added 11 years ago

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TIL Gaius gracchus, the ancient roman politician, had a bounty put on his head to the price of the head’s weight in gold. Although the head was delivered, the prize was never paid, as it was discovered that Gaius’ captor had emptied out his brain and replaced it with molten lead.

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WkWJN TIL Chuck Yeager enlisted as private, was an aircraft mechanic before becoming a pilot, got shot down over France but escaped, had 11.5 aerial victories, broke the sound barrier and multiple speed records as a test pilot, and retired from the US Air Force after 34 years as a brigadier general.
JY01l TIL cats cannot taste sugar.
yQ0dX TIL diners started using orange handle coffee pots for decaf because the colour orange was associated with the orange coloured label on Sanka, a once popular brand of instant decaf coffee.
ErWW TIL A 27-year-old male patient fasted under supervision for 382 days and went from 456 to 180 lbs.
Dwwr TIL that in 2011, two men para-glided from the summit of Mt. Everest, arriving at a village in 42min and avoiding the dangerous conventional 3 day descent.