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TIL The first Western abstract artist is considered to be Hilma af Klint, but although she started in 1906, she was only recognised in the 80s. In 1970 her paintings had been offered as a gift to Stockholm's Museum of Modern Art, but they didn't want them.

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4mRo TIL that after 9/11 Kevin Conroy volunteered as a cook for rescue workers at “Ground Zero”. One person recognized him as the voice of Batman and told everybody Batman was making dinner for them. It was the first time anyone there started to smile and laugh.
dD6D9 TIL about the Arabic novel Theologus Autodidactus, (“ The Self-taught Theologian"), which is considered to be one of the earliest Science Fiction stories. Its ‘impact event’ climax ends with a catastrophic doomsday apocalypse. It was written between 1268 and 1277.
KOeL9 TIL Samuel L Jackson stuttered as a child. He "pretended to be other people who didn't stutter" to overcome it. He still uses the word "motherfucker" to get through a speech block as he still has days when he stutters
M7DNB TIL that in 1748 Carl Linnaeus proposed the idea of a clock made of flowers. It would use plants that open or close their flowers at particular times of day to indicate the time. The accuracy would be limited because flowering times are affected by weather, seasons and latitude.
ZyyG TIL two hikers lost for days were saved after finding the abandoned gear of a man who had vanished 1 year prior, to the exact day. They used the matches in the pack to light a signal fire.