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TIL photographer Kevin Carter, famous for his photo of a vulture stalking a starving toddler, committed suicide a few months after receiving the Pulitzer Prize for his photo. He told an interviewer that after snapping the photo, he “sat under a tree for a long time, smoking cigarettes and crying”.

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1AZ8 TIL in 1990 a British Airways 747 landed in a deserted Kuwait airport on a stop-over as Iraq invaded. Its 385 passengers were captured, some of whom were subjected to mock executions and rape, and dispersed to military sites to be used as human shields. The last hostages were freed in December 1991.
R5re6 TIL about an Australian jellyfish that causes Irukandji syndrome: excruciating muscle cramps, severe pain in the back and kidneys, a burning sensation of the skin and face, headaches, nausea, restlessness, sweating, vomiting, and psychological phenomena such as the feeling of impending doom.
b9677 TIL in 2009, a woman was fined $1.9 million for illegally downloading 24 songs. That's $80K per song.
0wrZj TIL that, in 1913, a Nebraska man took a butcher knife and threatened to kill his wife and newborn son. The mother left him, remarried, and had the boy's name changed to that of his step-father. The boy, now known as Gerald Ford, later went on to become the 38th President of the United States.
d8o78 TIL that one of the most treasured possessions of late Japanese Emperor Hirohito wasn’t made of precious metals, or even from Japan. It was a Mickey Mouse quartz watch. Given to him while visiting the US in 1975, where he insisted on visiting Disney Land. When he died in 1989 he was buried with it.