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TIL Greenland was so remote that no-one realised the Viking settlements had died out until 1721, when missionaries visited the island expecting to find Norsemen who may have relapsed to paganism and instead found ruins.

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Ypjox TIL Operation Bagration, a Soviet offensive in Byelorussia that lasted between June 23 and August 19, 1944, was the largest defeat in German military history. Twenty-eight (out of 34) German divisions were wiped out, with 57,000 soldiers taken prisoner.
9rbB TIL The 13,000 sq. miles National Radio Quiet Zone in West Virginia does not allow cell phones, cordless phones, WiFi, digital cameras, automatic door openers, or gasoline engines. Pocahontas County, pop. 8,719, is the home to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Green Bank Telescope.
VBRYQ TIL Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was the first man to die during a space-flight. He volunteered to pilot a hastily built and fatally flawed spacecraft alone in order to save the life of the man who would replace him if he refused — his close friend and first man in space, Yuri Gagarin
PYW5e TIL that Australian beer companies changed their bottles to prevent the extinction of a species of beetle
kOZlg TIL a fluffer is a person employed to keep a porn performer's penis erect on the set. These duties are considered part of the makeup department. While fluffing does not necessarily involve touching the actors, it could entail sexual acts such as fellatio or non-penetrative sex