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TIL when the first chimp was launched into space, the button he was trained to press to receive a treat malfunctioned & he received electric shock after electric shock. “I never seen such terror on a chimp’s face,” said his trainer on his return.

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OQoR TIL that every single ruler of Germany (AKA East Francia or the Holy Roman Empire), from Charlemagne to Kaiser Wilhelm II, is part of a contiguous family tree. Even if it’s occasionally through marriage, that’s over 1,000 years.
Wlmo TIL of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, a bridge whose support towers are so tall and far apart that, due to the curvature of the earth, are almost two inches farther apart at the top than the bottom.
x6Q5b TIL the song Baby Blue, released in the 70s, experienced a resurgence of popularity in 2013 when it was featured in Breaking Bad's final episode. Online streams increased in popularity immediately after the broadcast; and the song subsequently charted in the UK for the first time at No. 73.
PY4ML TIL of Spurious Correlation. A phenomenon where two unrelated events coincidentally occur in the same pattern over time, such as the 99% correlation between the divorce rate in Maine and the per capita consumption of margarine.
b6Ox4 TIL in 2009, Benjamin Moody cracked the signing key to a TI-83+ calculator in 73 days on a 1.9 GHz dual-core processor, allowing users to flash their own OS. In 1999 same algorithm required a Cray supercomputer and 8000 MIPS-years of computing time to factorize a similar 512-bit key.