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TIL "the knock" (Da-da da-da da, da-da) is actually a call-and-response tune known as "Shave and a Hardcut, two bits"

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D1ooV TIL about Abram Petrovich Gannibal, an African child kidnapped to Russia as a gift for Peter the Great. The tsar freed him and raised him as his godson. Gannibal became a Major-General and the Governor of Reval. He is the great-grandfather of Alexander Pushkin, considered the greatest Russian poet.
mEDx TIL the inspiration for the novel Fight Club came to Chuck Palahniuk after he got in a fight on vacation. When he returned back to work none of his coworkers would ask what happened.
b95LE TIL of the fish kick, a technique in swimming where the swimmer turns sideways and mimics the motion of an eel. It is arguably the fastest way to swim and was once famously used in the 2000 Olympics by Misty Hyman to win the 200m butterfly. However, this kick is rarely used owing to its difficulty.
DQoWV TIL TJ Maxx was originally a subsidiary of the now defunct Zayre Department store chain.
m1djv TIL German mental calculator Gert Mittring broke the world record for taking roots when he successfully calculated the 89247th root of a million-digit number.