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TIL in 1988 British politician Edwina Currie was forced to resign after incorrectly stating that British eggs were tainted with salmonella. A few months later a government report found she was actually correct, but it was covered up until 2001.

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XEeok TIL: Eggs from hens raised on pastures "contain twice as much vitamin E and long-chain omega-3 fats, 2.5-fold more total omega-3 fatty acids, and less than half the ratio of omega-6:omega-3 fatty acids" than eggs from commercial hens
N8Y1 TIL that pre-columbian population of the Americas is estimated to have been 50-100 million people. 90% of the indigenous population died from diseases imported by europeans, most of which got infected and died without direct contact - fuelling the legend of an empty continent ready to be seized
epNZb TIL Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, an American physician and Nobel Prize winner, was charged of child molestation, including that of the children brought home from research trips to live with him.
yVZdp TIL that Alien was based on a comedy film written by its screenwriter Dan O'Bannon called Dark Star, featuring an alien that was just a painted beach ball with rubber claws attached. He eventually started imagining what Dark Star would look like as a horror film.
8eBbP TIL that Montserrat's official capital, Plymouth, has been abandoned since 1997 when it was destroyed by an eruption of the Soufrière Hills volcano. Since then, the de facto capital has been the town of Brades. Montserrat is the only territory on Earth with a ghost town as its capital.