› added 5 years ago

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TIL Aeschylus, a Greek playwright, died in 455 BC after an eagle dropped a tortoise on his head, mistaking his head for a rock (some eagles kill tortoises this way, breaking them open). Aeschylus was spending most of his time outside to avoid a prophecy that he would die from a falling object.

xVJy7 TIL The last two remnants of the virus known to cause smallpox, which are kept in tightly controlled government laboratories in the United States and Russia. In 2013, cloned variola major (smallpox) DNA fragments were found in a South African laboratory.
KO08B TIL that the surgeon that attempted to save John F Kennedy after his assassination also attempted to save Lee Harvey Oswald after his shooting, and even later performed a cancer surgery on Zapruder, the man who filmed JFK's assassination.
yXYw TIL That Marvel has banned comicbook writers from creating new X-Men or Fantastic Four characters, stopped X-Men and FF merchandising, and cancelled the Fantastic Four comic all in order to spite Fox, who owns the movie rights
Ooa TIL: That at MIT you can earn your “Pirate Certificate” by taking the physical education courses of pistol, archery, sailing, and fencing.
0dW9N TIL that despite living under Jim Crow, Percy Julian was a doctor who pioneered the drug industry. After he developed the chemical synthesis of hormones like testosterone & progesterone, he became the first African American chemist inducted into the National Academy of Sciences.