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TIL that the traditional maritime signal flag is today used for the opposite, indicating that a ship is free of disease

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6bDW TIL Grigori Perelman, a Russian mathematician, successfully proved the Poincaré conjecture (one of the seven Millennium problems) in papers made available in 2002 and 2003. When his work survived review, he was offered a Fields Medal and the $1,000,000 Millennium Prize, both of which he turned down.
vl17 TIL that the Chinese Yongle encyclopedia, completed in 1408, was the largest encyclopedia ever created until Wikipedia finally surpassed it in 2007
mZ7M TIL that the Motion Picture Academy refused to nominate Tron for a special-effects award because, according to director Steven Lisberger, “The Academy thought we cheated by using computers”
olwR TIL for the ‘FRIENDS’ episode where Susan (Ross’ ex-wife) and Carol got married, “NBC expected thousands and thousands of phone calls and hate mail but actually received only four complaints by telephone.”
epx0k TIL a common trope of early vernacular Chinese novels was "(A) lone Tibetan monk with his potent aphrodisiacs and retractable penis"