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TIL that John Hinckley Jr., former attempted assassin of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, has since been released from prison, turned his life around, recovered from his mental illness, announced his own record label, and released his own music to the public.

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4X9Xa TIL US Marine Reservist Hussein Mohamed Farrah Aidid served in Operation Restore Hope (the setting of Black Hawk Down). His father, Somalian warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid, was the opposition leader. One weekend in 1995 he didn’t show up to drill because he was busy taking over as warlord.
pYmlG TIL that during the making of "Thriller" by Michael Jackson, sound engineer Bruce Swedien set up tape recorders around his Great Dane in a barn overnight to record the howls used as sound effects in the song. When the dog didn't howl, it was decided that Jackson would record the howls himself.
Z8QAR TIL that French Guiana is legally part of France, and not a separate country, in a similar way to Hawaii being legally part of the USA. Technically all maps of France should probably have a window with French Guiana in the corner, the way Hawaii usually appears on maps of the USA.
9bbD TIL that areas where it is common for people to live over 100 years are known as “Blue Zones”. There are 5 on Earth: Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica; Loma Linda, California; and Icaria, Greece
n1lY TIL the last surviving Civil War veteran lived long enough to have seen television.