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TIL Gavrilo Princip, the man who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, believed the World War was bound to happen, independent of his actions. Chained to a wall in solitary confinement at the Terezín fortress, he died in 1918 weighing around 40kg from malnutrition and disease.

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x6jlb TIL the Temple Works flax mill in Leeds, UK, built in 1840 was a replica of the Temple of Horus at Edfu facade but had a grass roof maintained by flocks of sheep transported with a hydraulic lift to keep the mill interior humid as required for flax fibre work
9wdMp TIL elephants are capable of recognizing themselves in a mirror, which is a sign of self-awareness. Elephants were shown a mirror and their reactions were observed. They went through a series of behaviors, including touching their own bodies and inspecting their mouths.
w471 TIL that there exists areas where self-sustaining nuclear fission has occurred naturally, essentially a natural “nuclear reactor”
yQpE8 TIL the rarest naturally occuring element on Earth, astatine, is so rare that there is only 28 grams of it on Earth at any given time. It is difficult to study, as most of its isotopes have a half-life of 1 second or less. Its appearance is not known with certainty.
dD4DK TIL that Spiro Mounds, a Native American "King Tut's Tomb", were ransacked, desecrated, and destroyed by a group of local treasure hunters in 1935, and is considered the worst looting of an archaeological site in US history.