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TIL the earliest existing record of a telescope was a 1608 patent submitted to the government in the Netherlands by Middelburg spectacle maker Hans Lipperhey. The actual inventor is unknown but word of it spread through Europe. Galileo heard about it and, in 1609, built his own version.

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awRGL TIL Russell Crowe, a New Zealand actor and film producer, is the only non-Australian to be featured on an Australian stamp other than Queen Elizabeth II of England, and was featured twice. He has also been rejected in his bid to become an Australian citizen twice.
Yp81r TIL about Salvinorin A, a dissociative hallucinogen found in the plant Salvia divinorum. Used by indigenous Mazatec shamans for spiritual purposes for thousands of years, it's currently being studied as a potential therapeutic agent, as it's in legal in most countries which facilitates research.
BgLMD TIL: Shoes discovered in Titanic wreckage are typically found in pairs because they were worn by victims when they died. The bodies disintegrated but the shoes remain due to tannic acid in leather
D17np TIL: The PH scale was invented in Carlberg's laboratory to improve the brewing process of beer.
4N9N TIL that playing action video games trains people to make the right decisions faster without loss of accuracy. Video game players develop a heightened sensitivity to what is going on around them, which helps with multitasking, driving, keeping track of friends in a crowd, and navigating around town.