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TIL Many Japanese swords can be traced back to one of five "Gokaden" or "The Five Traditions" which were traditional schools of sword smithing. Each is named for the historical regions of Japan where they originated. As time went on, different schools merged techniques to forge more unique swords.

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looga TIL in 1966 Elliot See and Charles Basset, two Project Gemini Astronauts, died by crashing their T-38 jet into the building that housed the very spacecraft they were to have flown into orbit.
VMx0G TIL Elagabalus was an emperor of Rome who wore makeup and wigs, preferred to be called a lady, and offered vast sums to any physician who could provide him with a vagina. The historian Dio referred to him with feminine pronouns, and he is the first recorded person to seek sex reassignment surgery.
YpWWd TIL Like an outsized fossil in the Sahara, the 30-mile diameter Richat Structure in Mauritania, originally interpreted as a meteorite impact, is a circular, eroded dome dating back to the splitting of Pangea.
JY46V TIL in 1964 an icy runway caused a taxiing B-58 bomber to flop over and topple onto its fuel tanks. This ignited 14,000 gallons of blended gasoline and kerosene and barbecued the bomber’s nuclear payload…including a 9-megaton bomb powerful enough to flash fry any exposed human within 20 miles.
x618w TIL: in 1964 the U.S. ceded land to Mexico. A boundary dispute caused by the changing course of the Rio Grande near El Paso was resolved by the Chamizal Treaty which ceded land north of the river to Mexico and some Mexican land to the U.S. They agreed to rechannel the river so it won't happen again.