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TIL In 1803, the Igbo people (ethnic group from Nigeria) managed to take control of their slave ship. They committed mass suicide instead of submitting to slavery in the United States.

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JY0om TIL of Paul Alexander, one of the last people living in an iron lung after he contracted polio in 1952 at the age of 6. Despite his disability, he is an author and practicing lawyer
mxG8p TIL The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake slightly altered the Earth's rotation, shortening the length of a day by 2.68 microseconds. It also caused the Earth to minutely "wobble" on its axis by up to 25 mm in the direction of 145° east longitude.
9YPv6 TIL that in 2011 a 99-year-old Italian man divorced his 96-year-old wife after finding her secret love letters from the 1940s, revealing she had an affair
a4db TIL That Frank Sinatra was a big activist in the civil rights movement, refusing to stay at hotels that didn’t allow “blacks”. Even using his mafia ties to help get labor unions behind JFK because he knew they shared the same opinions on equal rights.
4jP5 TIL In the 1960s, the sugar industry paid three Harvard scientists $50,000 to say that heart disease was most likely caused by saturated fat. After their report was published in JAMA, diets concentrating on low fat gained the endorsement of many health authorities.