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TIL Nigel Richards, New Zealand, won the French scrabble championship, despite not knowing how to speak French. He instead memorized the entire French dictionary. He still cannot speak French.

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OoJPe TIL Yuri Gagarin scared farmers by landing in a spacesuit. A woman asked, "Can it be that you have come from outer space?" Gagarin said: "As a matter of fact, I have! Don't be afraid, I am a Soviet like you, who has descended from space and I must find a telephone to call Moscow!"
Z8a4R TIL: There is a fully intact Roman wine bottle sitting in Germany from the year 350 AD. It's fully drinkable but the Romans added a significant amount of thick olive oil as a preservative.
a8JYJ TIL sⅼavery continued to exist in Nigeria until the 1940s
WkNWL TIL from 1683 to 1871, British men typically purchased their commissions to serve as Army officers. It was a cash bond that helped guarantee good conduct, as well as acting as a filter to keep out lower classes, and the money was returned after an honorable retirement.
YppEd TIL we live closer to the rule of Cleopatra than Cleopatra lived to the building of the pyramids of Giza.