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TIL In WWII , scientists at the Vavilov Institute of Plant protected the seeds from the threats of cold, hungry residents of the besieged city, rats, and their own hunger. 28 of the botanists died of starvation, protecting their collection Today invaluably stored at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault

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R5rl1 TIL that in 2007-08, The Wiggles were Australia's highest paid entertainers - earning a gross income of $45mil - beating out Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, and Cate Blanchett
wLKo6 TIL the so-called ‘Pillars of Creation’, which are to be found within the Eagle Nebula. The nebula lies 6,500 light years away. The ‘pillar’ on the left is 4 light-years high, which is around 24,000,000,000,000 miles, (24 trillion).
9Ed6 TIL Tagalog is the fifth most spoken language in the united states, ranking higher than Vietnamese, Korean, German, Arabic and Russian.
p8wbb TIL before fame, Bruce Springsteen acquired his nickname "The Boss" because he took on the task of collecting the band's nightly pay from their club gigs and distributing it amongst his bandmates. Springsteen is not fond of this nickname, due to his dislike of bosses, but has tacitly accepted it.
kRVE TIL the lyrics of the first original USSR anthem commissioned by Stalin, the lyrics of the second anthem (after De-Stalinization) and the lyrics of the current anthem of Russian Federation were all written by the same man, Sergey Mikhalkov (who was mostly a writer of children books and fables).