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TIL Eric Carle, the American-born illustrator and writer of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, moved to Germany as a kid in the 1930s, and was conscripted to dig trenches for the German army when he was 15 years old. Now 87 years old, he is one of the youngest surviving WWII veterans.

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6EbAJ Today I Learned Australia is actually an American company
0wpMA TIL NASA took Nefertiti the jumping Porscha spider to the ISS to see if she could learn to hunt in zero gravity. She did, and when she returned to earth 110 days later, she successfully retrained her jumps again for 1 g.
ADa9x TIL the special effects artist for The Thing (1982), Rob Bottin, checked himself into the hospital after filming had wrapped because of exhaustion and spent several weeks recovering. The effects in the film are considered to be some of the best ever and still hold up today.
WKno TIL of David Hahn, who at 17 years old attempted to build a nuclear reactor in his backyard, which at one point was emitting over 1000 times normal background radiation.
R7dm9 TIL that in the 19th century the theory that bad smells spread disease was widely accepted, therefore the population dumped human waste and garbage into the river to minimize odor in the streets. A particularly hot summer in London, 1858 caused what became known as "The Great Stink of 1858"