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TIL: Apples were originally nearly all bitter and were only used to make cider. However, during the prohibition in the 19th century, orchard owners used the slogan, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”, in hopes of protecting their orchards and turning the apple into a health food.

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rNLm4 TIL that Robert Fulton, developer of the first commercially successful steamboat, was involved in multiple polyamorous relationships. One lover, Joel Barlow, wrote him letters in baby talk threatening to cut off his penis. Fulton asked his wife to join a foursome with the Barlows, but she declined.
WkGnA TIL Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev pressured writer Boris Pasternak to decline a Nobel Prize for Literature, after publishing his banned novel Doctor Zhivago. After retirement, Khrushchev obtained a copy of the novel and stated, "We shouldn't have banned it. I should have read it myself."
mnWE TIL that CNN medical correspondent and neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta saved a Marine’s life after he was shot in the head during the opening days of the invasion of Iraq. Without proper tools, Gupta performed the brain surgery with a Black and Decker handheld drill. The Marine lived.
VMEOB TIL In Norway, to change your surname to one that 200 or fewer people have, you must ask from permission from everyone who has that name
Br4pD TIL that both the penny and the nickel cost more to make than they're worth, and that up to 1982 the metal in a penny was worth more than the penny itself.