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TIL about Julie d'Aubigny, a French swordwoman who: dressed in men's clothing, joined a convent to be with her female lover, got challenged to duels by three separate men for kissing a woman at a ball, and was a popular opera singer.

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b970E TIL Heath Ledger was first choice to play in 2002's Spider-Man, but turned it down as he didn't want to take someone else's dream away of playing Spider-Man. Eventually the role went to Tobey Magurie.
9w8RQ TIL Bruce Springsteen originally wrote the song "Hungry Heart" for the Ramones at the request of Joey Ramone, but ended up keeping and recording the song himself on the advice of his producer and manager, Jon Landau. It became Springsteen's first big hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #5.
MeGmK TIL A study found prejudice affects our abilities- When Asian girls were reminded of their ethnicity they did better at math, but when they were reminded of their gender, they did worse.
nepL9 TIL of Mauro Prosperi who survived for 9 days alone in the Saharan Desert on a diet of urine and bats after becoming disoriented and travelling nearly 200 miles in the wrong direction during an endurance event. He was found in Algeria despite the race taking part in Morocco
loE9B TIL that in 1666, the entire English village of Eyam, when contaminated with the bubonic plague, agreed to quarantine itself, essentially sentencing themselves to death, instead of fleeing to other villages. They did it to stop the disease from spreading. Some 260 villagers died.