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TIL when John White was nine a teacher told him he would grow up to be a garbage man. When John's dad found out, he told his son to grow up to be his best, look for the best in others, and it was ok if he was a garbage man. John White grew up to become Pulitzer Prize photojournalist.

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0wpV1 TIL in 2008, the Netherlands voted "Swaffelen" as their word of the year. It means to repeatedly smack one's (usually either flaccid or semi-erect) penis against someone or something.
rN1ay TIL that according to US Middle East Specialist Edgar Wright, an unknown individual impersonated Harry Truman's voice on the telephone and swayed the President of Haiti into voting for a motion at the UN.
PYlkO TIL NASA funded a project (1960s) to learn how to communicate with dolphins. The experiment went awry, and trainers began giving handjobs to the dolphins.
b9JjN TIL the saying "Kill them all; let God sort them out." originates from the instructions given by a Papal representative to the crusaders just before the The Massacre at Béziers where all 20,000 citizens were killed. The original Latin instructions: Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.
ZO4G TIL that at one point in the 1970s, 1 out of every 204 working Americans was employed by Sears