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TIL Africa accounts for just 3% of the world's trade

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8elP8 TIL the observation of the comet Kohoutek helped to support the "dirty snowball" hypothesis about the composition of comet nuclei. The comet was a disappointment to the public, however, because early projections for its brightness had been too optimistic.
Xex6 TIL that King George V of England, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany were first cousins.
DGoD TIL that zoos save feathers that come off many of their birds and have them distributed to Native American tribes for their religious ceremonies.
mxQBv TIL November 14, 1910 Eugene Ely made the first airplane takeoff from a warship in a Curtiss pusher airplane from the cruiser USS Birmingham at Hampton Roads, VA. Ely later completes the first landing and takeoff from a ship in 1911. His flights marked the beginning of carrier aviation.
Oo9xg TIL During the regime of General Sani Abacha (1993-98), Wole Soyinka (first African to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature) escaped from Nigeria. Abacha later proclaimed a death sentence against him "in absentia." With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, Soyinka returned to his nation.