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TIL 10-year old Tilly Smith saved her family and 100 other tourists from the 2004 Asian tsunami, by recognizing signs of tsunamis she had learned in a geography lesson two weeks before.

Read more telegraph.co.uk

via reddit.com

1Ar4 TIL Peacock feathers are actually brown, but have microscopic structures that interfere with light that make the bright iridescence.
E1aNp TIL about the Lion of Lucerne, a 30-foot long lion carved into the side of a quarry. The monument is dedicated to the Swiss Guards who were massacred during the French Revolution. Dying from a spear, the lion was described by Mark Twain as "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world."
gM6YW TIL: The medical symbol for male and female are originally the alchemical symbols for Iron and Copper respectively, and originally they referred to the Greek gods of Mars and Venus.
W0Bd TIL Ed McGivern was able to fire five shots at five yards into a silver dollar in 45/100ths of a second, shoot six hand-thrown clays, shoot a dime on the fly and that his Guinness world record for “The greatest rapid-fire feat” still stands (1932).
WkpZN TIL about Richard L. McKinley, who died in a nuclear plant accident. His body ended so contaminated that had to be buried in a lead-lined casket which was then sealed in concrete and placed in a metal vault and cannot be moved from its location without the approval of the Atomic Energy Commission.