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TIL in 1978 British explorer Tim Severin proved it was possible for a 6th century Irish boat clad in leather to make the journey across the Atlantic from Ireland to North America. This was done to test if St. Brendan the Navigators described journey across the Atlantic was possible at the time.

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nWvWr TIL that after the collapse of the Tacoma bridge in 1940, it’s designer Clark Eldridge enlisted in the navy. He was captured and sent to a POW camp by the Japanese for three years. During his imprisonment, a Japanese officer recognized him, walked up to him and said “Tacoma bridge!”.
vNjL TIL “Killing Season” is a British medical term for the time in August when newly qualified doctors join the National Health Service. Patients admitted as an emergency during “killing season” are six per cent more likely to die.
oBKbY TIL the New York Yankees baseball team began as the Baltimore Orioles in 1901, before moving to New York in 1903 where the team was re-named the New York Highlanders. The team was not re-named the Yankees until a decade later in 1913.
yQ8Pp TIL: The Religion of John Frum, A small religion from Tanna, Vanuatu believes in a god that is depicted as an American G.I that will return to them from the sky.
0de1y TIL The British Monarch has 'The Royal Prerogative of Mercy' which allows them to grant pardons to convicted people. Queen Elizabeth II has pardoned a few people, the most famous of whom was a posthumous pardon for Alan Turing, convicted for 'Homosexual Acts' as was illegal in 1952.