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TIL Chris Columbus was originally suppose to direct "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," but dropped out because Chevy Chase was difficult to work with. A few weeks later he got the script for "Home Alone," which revitalized his career.

mxJPP TIL around 2.5 billion years ago, the Oxygen Catastrophe occurred, where the first microbes producing oxygen using photosynthesis created so much free oxygen that it wiped out most organisms on the planet because they were used to living in minimal oxygenated conditions
M77b8 TIL of Mary Anning, who discovered, with her brother, the first ichthyosaur fossil at age 12. She would go on to discover many more fossils and revolutionize the science of paleontology. However, due to being a woman in the early 1800s, she rarely received full credit for her discoveries.
kORXE TIL Adultery is a criminal offense with punishments varying widely by state. In Maryland, the penalty is a paltry $10 fine. But in Massachusetts, an adulterer could face up to three years in jail.
loRZV TIL a New Zealand wild Kea parrot snatched £600 from the van of a Scottish tourist out taking photos; a Canadian couple told him: "We’ve just seen that bird take something out of your van." He reported the theft to police who laughed. Kea are known car vandals, reported to break off wing mirrors.
dDejQ TIL that barnacles are actually crustaceans, closely related to crabs and lobsters- their larvae look very similar to crabs, and upon finding a suitable site to adhere to, they will activate their cement glands, grow a hard calcium shell, and metamorphosize into adults.