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TIL of William Kamkwamba, who at the age of 15 taught himself how to build windmills out of junk to provide his family electricity, and later to pump water for his community that was suffering from a huge drought. He did all of this through library books, as his family couldn't afford schooling.

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9Y5NG TIL that on May 19th, 1999 when Star Wars: The Phantom Menace released into theaters, an estimated 2.2 million full time employees missed work to watch the film. Costing the US an estimated $293 million dollars from lose of productivity.
OGAb7 TIL because Kid Rock refused to sell his music on iTunes until 2012, his 2008 hit "All Summer Long" was out-charted on the Billboard Hot 100 by an instrumental cover from the karaoke company Hit Masters (the songs peaked at #23 and #19, respectively).
dPAZ TIL Bhutan is the only country in the world that is carbon negative; it emits 1.5 million tonnes of carbon a year while its forests absorb 6 million.
VPZQ TIL in 1986 a Russian Aeroflot pilot made a bet with the copilot that he could land successfully with the windows covered up. The plane crashed, killing 70 of the 94 on board.
4kB0b TIL that, in 1604, King James I wrote ‘A Counterblaste to Tobacco’, in which he described smoking as a ‘custome lothesome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs