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TIL when Secretariat (winner of the triple crown in 1973) died, his body was sent to the University of Kentucky for an autopsy. They found his heart weighed an astounding 22 pounds! The average weight of a mature Thoroughbred’s heart is a mere eight pounds.

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KOxxw TIL when he was in fourth grade, Bill Watterson wrote to Charles Schulz, the creator of “Peanuts”, expressing his desire to become a professional cartoonist. Much to the young boy’s surprise, the cartoonist responded, encouraging Watterson to go on to create “Calvin and Hobbes.”
woYV7 TIL By the time babies are crawling, their brains have already learned what accent their speech will become and that it's possible to adapt your own accent but you can never change it based on what your brain has decided it will be from that very VERY early age.
OMaY TIL the parachutes of mars rovers are being sterilized to prevent life from earth “hitchhikes” to mars, making it impossible to distinguish from possible microbes on mars.
PY8J TIL on September 11, 1857, a wagon train heading through Utah toward California was attacked by a Mormon Militia. The militia had disguised themselves as Indians, but once it was suspected that their cover was blown, the Mormons feigned a truce and slaughtered 120 men, women, and children.
E10rx TIL about Radium Girls who mixed radium paint for watches and used camel hair brushes to apply the glowing paint onto the dials. The brushes would lose shape after a few strokes so the U.S. Radium supervisors encouraged their workers to point the brushes with their lips (lip, dip, paint). 1917-1926