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TIL George H.W. Bush ordered emergency airlifts of food and supplies to Somalia in 1992.“Operation Restore Hope,” to help the starving country by protecting food shipments from the warlords. By helping to end the famine, American forces saved around 100,000 lives

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WXEX TIL that Alexander the Great founded and named 70 cities, naming at least 20 after himself, and one after his horse.
j6N7E TIL of Bullshit Jobs - it's been estimated that over half of societal work is pointless.
QJMd TIL the diet of Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station, full of jellied fish, borsch, and goulash, caused their shit to be so thick it kept clogging the $19-million space-toilets
won57 TIL Doug Hegdahl was captured during the Vietnam War and while pretending to be stupid was able to disabled enemy trucks, memorize info about 250 fellow prisoners, and, after being released, participated in the Paris Peace Talks, which eventually helped to free said prisoners.
b6rpp TIL of the ATU Index, a system for classifying folktales from around the world by cross-culturally recurrent elements. The system now includes such types as "Persecuted Heroine", "Animal Bride", or "The Cat as Helper".