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TIL During the regime of General Sani Abacha (1993-98), Wole Soyinka (first African to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature) escaped from Nigeria. Abacha later proclaimed a death sentence against him "in absentia." With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, Soyinka returned to his nation.

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e0d7J TIL Ash Ketchum comes from CATCH EM ALL...
PYjOJ TIL the reason the marathon is 26.2 miles long is due to the British Royal Family. At the 1908 London Olympics the race was started from Windsor Castle to accommodate a younger member and an extra 385 yards was needed so as to finish at the Royal Box in the White City stadium.
VM8Q0 TIL Ray Kroc, who purchased and created the McDonalds business as we know it, was friends with Walt Disney. They'd met in World War I where they drove Red Cross Ambulances together. Both had lied about their age to join the service.
QNM4X TIL Marla Gibbs continued to work as a flight attendant for two years after being cast on a hit TV show. In a 2015 interview, Gibbs told the Washington Post that despite it appearing as though she had gotten her big break, she kept her job as a flight attendant for American Airlines for 2 more yrs.
7815b TIL that in the 1940s Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar drove 200 miles round trip each week to teach a class in the Uni of Chicago. One day he insisted on driving to teach the class despite a heavy snowstorm. He ended up teaching a class of only two that day, both of whom went on to win a Nobel Prize.