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TIL The First Lady of the United States, Lou Henry Hoover, became the first woman to receive a degree in geology from Stanford University.

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W7o7L TIL If Coca-Cola's inventor had decided to file a patent application in 1892 instead of keeping the recipe a secret, patent protection would have expired long before Pepsi ever came onto the market in 1965. Patent protection lasts 20 years at most. Trade secrets can last forever.
eVE6 TIL there was a man named Joseph Bolitho Johns who escaped Australian prison so many times, they built a special cell just for him. He escaped that as well.
4XGZ6 TIL Funerals in Taiwan sometimes feature erotic dancers to attract mourners and assist the transition to the afterlife
nYgG TIL that pop rocks (and other popping candy) work by carbonating the candy in its liquid state, creating high pressure pockets of gas that are released when you eat it. Effectively, its a carbonated food as opposed to a carbonated beverage.
neej7 TIL Christine Jorgensen, a former Army private from the Bronx, was an American trans woman who was the first person to become widely known in the United States for having sex reassignment surgery.