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TIL that JRR Tolkein fought in the Battle of the Somme

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via reddit.com

0d9Bv TIL that the Greenlandic Inuit worked iron both from meteorites and lava flows that formed native iron metal.
VMgXB TIL Abraham Lincoln's corpse was sent on a two-week funeral tour across America, shown openly to thousands. In the course of the trip the body visibly decomposed, bloated, and darkened. In New York City alone, the body was seen by over 150,000 and exposed to the air for 23 hours straight
OL4a TIL the spacecraft Solar Probe Plus which is scheduled to be launched in 2018 will achieve a speed of 432,000 mph, making it the fastest man made object ever built.
WXnA TIL that Robert De Niro was so dedicated, to prepare for his roles, he actually gained 60 lbs for Raging Bull, lived in Sicily Italy for The Godfather Part II, ground his teeth for Cape Fear, became a cab driver for Taxi Driver, and learned to play the saxophone for New York, New York.
yQxRV TIL bats were considered birds until the 1700s. Also whales and manatees were thought to be fish.