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TIL in 1975, Stephen Hawking wagered to cosmologist Kip Thorne a subscription to Penthouse (an adult magazine) that Cygnus X-1 would not turn out to be a black hole. Hawking lost the bet but was okay with it because if he had won, much of his research would've been proven wrong.

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8j68 TIL of Carlos DeLuna, who was wrongly convicted of murder and executed for killing a gas station attendant. The police made no effort to investigate another man named Carlos who looked nearly identical to DeLuna. Evidence of his innocence would have taken less than a day of investigation to uncover
j6E9M TIL about Delusional Parasitosis, a mental disorder in which individuals have a persistent belief that they are infested with living or nonliving pathogens such as parasites, insects, or bugs, when no such infestation is present.
16OL4 TIL in early 2000 when Eminem submitted The Marshall Mathers LP to label boss Jimmy Iovine, he was unsatisfied & said that it didn't have a hit single. In direct response to this, Em created the album's second single "The Way I Am" with the track's piano rhythm even coming to him on the plane home.
pY1XQ TIL a pigeon named Cher Ami became a war hero in WWI by flying 25 miles to deliver a life-saving message, despite being shot, blinded in one eye, and flying with one leg barely attached she saved 194 soldiers and was awarded a medal, buried with honors, and now rests in the Smithsonian.
Lkaap TIL that the oldest Olympian ever was Oscar Swahn of Sweden, who won the gold medal in shooting at the 1912 Olympics at the age of 65.