› added 4 years ago

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TIL China is banned from the International Space Station partly because of a fear that Chinese taikonauts will hack sensitive NASA equipment if allowed on-board.

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yWEa TIL in 1945 a farmer chopped off a chicken’s head, missed the jugular vein, a clot formed and some of the brain stem survived, providing basic homeostasis functions. Mike the headless chicken toured in sideshows for 18 months and earned the farmer $4,500/ month at the peak of his popularity
8aYMV TIL Benjamin Franklin invented anti-wound pads that would later become disposable menstrual pads
loLra TIL that National Reconnaissance Office donated two Hubble-class telescopes to The National Science Foundation, because they were only gathering dust in a warehouse. NRO is the agency in charge of USA's spy satellities, the donation was prompted by the two telescopes becoming obsolete for spying.
Ax9B TIL That Spongebob Squarepants was originally going to be called Spongeboy and the show was originally going to be called Spongeboy Ahoy, but they had to change his name after it turned out that Spongeboy was the copyrighted name of a mop.
p8x0N TIL of Prince Estabrook. A slave who was wounded fighting alongside patriots at Lexington and fought until the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783. He was emancipated after the war.