› added 10 months ago

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TIL that when 13-year-old Ryan White got AIDS from a blood donor in 1984, he was banned from returning to school by a petition signed by 117 parents. An auction was held to keep him out, a newspaper supporting him got death threats, and his family left town when a gun was fired through their window.

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GAWMg TIL: Extra organs and body parts are more common than many people realise with extra nipples and teeth among the most common.
nW87 TIL astronauts have a patch of Velcro inside their helmet so they can scratch their nose.
XEkXE TIL the Bengal famine of 1943 saw the starvation deaths of at least two million Indians. Upon learning about the conditions Winston Churchill sent a telegram to ask why Ghandi hadn't starved.
1OaP TIL that Nazi Germany had a research programme (Wunderwaffe) that included a stealth bomber, night vision, a 1,500 ton super tank, submarine aircraft carrier, an x-ray gun, and a satellite with a concave mirror to “make an ocean boil or burn a city”.
OGxp1 TIL the current flag of South Africa is only 30 years old and was literally designed a few weeks prior to it being officially hoisted on 27 April 1994