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TIL Louis Braille lost his sight at 5 years old after an accident trying to make holes in a piece of leather with an awl. 10 years later, he completed his system of reading and writing for use by the blind or visually impaired. Braille created his own raised-dot system by using an awl.

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VB4LZ TIL: An old english medicine receipt book from the 10th century contains a receipt for eyesalve consisting of vine, garlic, leeks and bile from a cow's stomach. Then it has to sit for 9 days in a brass bowl. Test from 2015 showed it to have a similar effect as modern antibiotics.
QNWv9 TIL that the disease “the bends” were discovered while workers on the Brooklyn bridge came up too quickly while working down in the caissons
VBBBG TIL that Harambe’s mother, only full brother, and two of his half siblings were killed when a tub of wet chlorine tablets was left by a space heater. The toxic fumes were blown into the gorilla enclosure and killed the four gorillas.
b69Bp TIL in 1944, countries agreed with the US to settle their international accounts in dollars to have gold converted at a fixed rate of $35 per ounce. In 1971, President Nixon announced the US would no longer do it, thus completely abandoning the gold standard. This was known as the 'Nixon Shock'.
xjrb TIL that five-year-olds that have four or more servings of soda daily are 100% more aggressive than those five-year-olds that don’t drink any soda according to a study by Columbia University.