› added 5 years ago

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TIL: One housecat (ever) survived spaceflight. Test animal C-341 later renamed Félix and then Félicette was blasted into a suborbital flight on a French rocket in 1963. Seeking to examine her brain for possible space-induced changes, some weeks after her historic flight scientists euthanized her.

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l7PKN TIL: Researchers Joseph and Charles Vacanti grew a human "ear" seeded from implanted cow cartilage cells on the back of a living mouse to explore the possibility of fabricating body parts for plastic and reconstructive surgery
gMPLX TIL before becoming President of Nauru, Marcus Stephen was at one time his country’s only weightlifter, but went on to win 7 gold and 5 silver medals at the Commonwealth Games (Olympics style event held for former British colonies)
oBYEY TIL that Hugo Gutmann, a German Jewish army officer recommended Hitler for the award of the Iron Cross. According to the historian Werner Maser, Gutmann received, by Hitler's intervention, a pension from Nazi Germany until the end of the Second World War in Europe, despite losing his citizenship.
ylJl TIL the Puritans didn’t come to America to avoid religious persecution but because they wanted to be able to persecute
rRwAo TIL that the plagues of the Middle Ages have made around 10% of Europeans resistant to HIV. These individuals carry a genetic mutation (known as CCR5-Ä32) that prevents the virus from entering the cells of the immune system. The plagues of the Middle Ages played a part in creating these mutations.