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TIL scientists in 2007 managed to resurrect an ancient retrovirus using virus DNA fragments embedded in the human genome.

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JNn4 TIL that as a child Muhammad Ali was refused an autograph from his boxing idol Sugar Ray Robinson. When Ali became a prized fighter he vowed to never deny an autograph request, which he honored through his entire career. He even had a special P.O. box for anyone who wanted his autograph.
OoYM6 TIL that using sign language, a caretaker communicated female chimp that her own baby died, to which the female chimp signed back "CRY" "touching her cheek and drawing her finger down the path a tear would make on a human" (chimps can't shed tears)
5YPaB TIL Carl Sagan's team wanted to include the Beatles song "Here Comes the Sun" on the Voyager Golden Records (discs containing greetings in 60 languages, music and sounds from Earth aboard both Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977), but the record company EMI, which held the copyrights, declined.
7r10O TIL: The Central American/Southern Mexican Chechen tree, which produces very poisonous sap, grows next to the Chacan tree, which produces an antidote sap that remedies its counterpart.
9wlaG TIL Windows 95 was the second most installed piece of software on computers in 1995. First place went to DOOM.