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TIL on the show “Frasier”, the guest callers on his radio show were famous personalities and celebrities, sometimes joking about their real-life problems. Most notable is David Duchovny talking about his sex addiction long before anyone knew about it.

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v1Q58 TIL about Luis Pardo Villalón, the chilean Navy officer who commanded the rescue of the Endurance crew. He had never sailed to Antarctica before, but the chilean government sent him aboard the Yelcho, to rescue the 22 stranded men on Elephant Island, after Ernest Shackleton made it to land.
mx1pP TIL that Percy Bysshe Shelley, famous romantic poet and husband of Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, was expelled from Oxford in 1811 due to his publication and distribution of the pamphlet called "The Necessity of Atheism".
8an5P TIL in 1783, an Icelandic volcano (Laki) erupted over 8-months spewing poisonous sulfur dioxide across the Northern Hemisphere. It lead to some of the worst winters on record with mass crop failures, famine, disease and is said to have been the trigger for the French Revolution.
O4dY TIL: The song “Yellow Rose of Texas” is referring to a light skinned woman of African ancestry and is a reference to the often times considered derogatory term “High Yellow.”
jNAxn TIL: Ethiopia is several years behind the rest of the world. Since the religious country is so strongly influenced by the Coptic Orthodox Church, it still adheres to the traditional calendar of that church, which is seven years behind the rest of the world. Currently it's November 2011 there.