› added 5 years ago

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TIL that Flossie Wong-Staal was the first researcher to clone HIV. She also completed genetic mapping of the virus which made it possible to develop HIV tests.

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v19nD TIL that during the 1908 Olympics, marathon runners, including the winners, drank champagne, brandy, or strychnine cocktails, in the belief that it would provide energy. In 1924, the Paris games provided wine at rehydration stations.
Bnvr TIL that the man responsible for creating both NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys is serving 25 years in jail for fraud and running one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history
neEZB TIL: Because of a botched surgery intended to repair a severely perforated eardrum, that actually caused permanent inner ear damage, Stephen Colbert wasn't able to scuba dive for a marine biology job he wanted which pushed him to comedy. The damage to his eardrum also left him deaf in his right ear.
neXxb TIL Mr. T stopped wearing his signature gold chains after hurricane Katrina as he didn't want to be insensitive and disrespectful to those who lost everything.
WkJ98 TIL the Peruvian Navy still actively operates a ship that was built in England in 1862, disassembled into small pieces and shipped across the Atlantic, and carried by mules over 220 miles to Lake Titicaca to be reassembled. Its sister ship (sent the same way) also still works on the lake.