› added 12 years ago

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TIL Alan Turing, the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, committed suicide after being chemically castrated for being a homosexual.

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R54Nj TIL in 1967 a man named Thomas Jolley fled the US to Canada and renounced his citizenship to avoid being drafted in the Vietnam War. A few months later he returned to the US and was ordered deported, but Canada refused to accept him back. He spent the rest of his life in the US as an illegal alien.
xRKb TIL Columbus thought that some manatees he saw were mermaids. He wrote that they were ‘not half as beautiful as they are painted’
GY59N TIL comedian Greg Davies' parents lived in England around the time he was born, but when his mother went into labor, his Welsh father drove them all across the border, just so his son would be Welsh-born, and thus eligible to play rugby for the Welsh national team
GYM87 TIL in 1997 that Fox was scheduled to air a Scott Baio sitcom titled "Rewind" as part of their fall lineup. They cancelled it two weeks before it's debut.
W7oo8 TIL that there is a species of ant called Tetramorium caespitum that is also known as “the pavement ant” because it often nests under sidewalks and driveways. They are notorious for having massive wars with other colonies over territory