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TIL - There is a grove of trees that spells out "STUDEBAKER" when viewed from the air. This grove of trees outlasted the now defunct automobile company.

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yewv TIL an officer of the US Navy, James Stockdale, became a POW. To prevent his captors from using him as propaganda, he cut his scalp with razors, beat his face with a stool until he was unrecognizable, and slit his wrists.
e8DD TIL in a letter called the Ashtiname, Muhammad called on followers of Islam to protect Christians “in any place they may dwell.” Violators would be regarded as having “despised [God’s] Religion, and made himself deserving of His Curse, whether he is a Sultan or any other believer of Islam.”
7X1P TIL watermelons originated in Africa and were first cultivated solely for their water content; their flavor was very bitter.
gMwKy TIL In 36 BCE, Roman statesman Marcus Varro wrote about germs, describing “minute creatures which cannot be seen by the eyes, which…enter the body through the mouth and nose and there cause serious diseases.” The germ theory of disease would not be accepted widely for another 1,900 years.
NE4P TIL Anthropologists believe cats approached humans on their own terms 12,000 years ago. The first agricultural societies stored food that attracted mice, the cats decreased the rodent population by eating them, and a mutual relationship began.