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TIL Sergei Bubka repeatedly and deliberately broke the world pole vault record by the smallest possible height so he could cash in on a Nike bonus with each new record. In a two-year span, he broke his own world record 14 times.

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WdPA TIL of the spacecraft cemetery - a remote location in the Pacific where dozens of decommissioned vessels have splashed down
oBdoK TIL that the Memory of Mankind has buried modern 'clay tablets' preserving the most important modern knowledge beneath a salt mine in Austria for future generations with clues to decipher them
kOGlg The name Earth is at least 1,000 years old. All of the planets, except for Earth, were named after Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. However, the name Earth is a Germanic word, which simply means “the ground.”
6EAx8 TIL of Robert Smalls, a slave during the Civil War who escaped by commandeering a Confederate transport ship, persuaded Lincoln to allow African-Americans in the army, and later became a US House Representative. One of his final actions as a leader was to stop a lynch mob from killing two black men.
XEyQD [TIL] Michael Jackson was so absorbed in writing “Billie Jean” on a ride home from the studio one day that he didn’t even notice his car was on fire. A passing motorcyclist alerted him.