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TIL that the Soviets told the inventor of the Theremin that "electricity is not good for music; electricity is to be used for electrocution" and then fired him

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5YORp TIL of Shizo Kanakuri, a japanese athlete who collapsed during the 1912 olympics marathon. Embarrassed, he went home without notifying race officials. He eventually came back to finish, with a time of 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds
m1Z5R TIL the creator of the popular e-mail client Eudora named it after author Eudora Welty, for her short story "Why I Live at the P.O." If he had known that Eudora would become as popular as it did, he would not have presumed to name it after a (then) living author (she was pleased and amused)
4k1kN TIL from a 2014 paper that the majority of weight loss occurs via breathing: "According to researchers from the University of New South Wales in Australia, when weight is lost, the majority of it is breathed out as carbon dioxide."
4A7N TIL that immediately after the founding of Israel on May 14, 1948, before their defense force was even founded, five Arab nations (Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan) declared war on it
b9lep TIL John Priest survived the Asturias foundering (1907, damaged in collision), Olympic and Hawke collision (1911), Titanic sinking (1912, hit iceberg), Alcantara sinking (1916, torpedoed), Britannic sinking (1916, hit mine), and Donegal sinking (1917, torpedoed).