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TIL Isaac Newton developed nearly all his best-known theories during an impromptu "gap year," while Cambridge University was closed due to plague.

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Oo4b7 TIL a boucanier was a French hunter in the Caribbean who smoked meat on a wooden frame called a boucane. Boucaniers sold their meat to the corsairs operating around the Caribbean. Eventually the corsairs themselves were referred to as boucaniers, later anglicized as "buccaneers".
90XD TIL Hugh Thompson (who saved numerous Vietnamese civilians during the My Lai massacre) suffered from PTSD, alcoholism, divorce, and severe nightmare disorder as a result of testifying against those responsible for the massacre.
5YyO8 TIL the American Service-Members' Protection Act, nicknamed the "Hague Invasion Act" and passed in 2002, instructs the US military to use any means necessary to free US officials imprisoned for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
L4ZP TIL a teen needing a heart transplant was rejected in part because of his history of juvenile detention. A media outcry resulted in his getting a new heart, and later he died fleeing after a carjacking/burglary/shooting spree.
KOXdQ TIL A bank robber hired decoys on Craigslist and escaped down a creek on a Inner tube