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TIL that Steve Irwin and his father discovered a species of turtles that can breathe through their cloaca in 1990. It's named after them: Irwin's turtle.

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AWpg TIL on Christmas Day 1826, cadets at the US Military Academy at West Point including future Confederacy President Jefferson Davis threw a booze-fueled party and eventual mutiny that ended with twenty court martials. It was known as the “Eggnog Riot”.
yJYM TIL that Vincent van Gogh’s last words were, “The sadness will last forever.”
6BmX TIL Kroger uses infrared sensors to track customers in their stores; an algorithm then decides how many checkout lines need to be open to reduce wait times.
dDaPr TIL that a 20th-cent scientist called Margarita Salas discovered the order in which messenger RNA is read, as well the existence of S Φ29 phage DNA polymerase. Through her work, she created a way to replicate trace amounts of DNA into quantities large enough for full genomic testing
1awmr TIL Frank Sinatra’s son was kidnapped in 1963 and Sinatra ended up paying $240,000 (about $2,000,000 adjusted for inflation) in ransom before his son was safely returned.