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TIL that Nicolaus Copernicus proposed the heliocentric solar system (making the sun the center of the solar system instead of earth) from his death bed because he was aware of the controversy it would cause and the danger it proposed to him. He was right.

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KOpla TIL President Kennedy's daughter Caroline was given a puppy by the Soviets in 1961. The puppy's mother, Strelka, had earlier been launched into space during Sputnik. JFK's Thank You letter to the Soviets opened a channel of communication that helped divert the Cuban Missile Crisis 16 months later.
kOwl1 TIL The United States Marine Corps emblem has a globe showing the western hemisphere, while the Royal Marines emblem has a globe showing (most of) the eastern hemisphere. Between the two, they cover the whole globe.
7rXdP TIL that Roman soldiers (that survived battle) actually had longer lives than the average Roman citizen due to the implementation of medical units in their legions.
gMad4 TIL before his death, Fidel Castro's last wish was to avoid being a "personality cult"; because of this, Cuba prohibits the use of Castro's name in the names of "institutions, parks, streets and other public places, as well as any honorary titles or medals."
rN1n1 TIL on our billions years old planet, trees have only been around for 400M years. For the first 40M bacteria, fungus, mold, yeast, and animals had NFI what to do with them. So trees just got old and fell over. 40M years of perfectly fine baseball bats and chesterfields just laying around the place.