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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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obLE TIL that, with the German Sixth Army hopelessly surrounded in Stalingrad in 1943, Hitler promoted their commander Friedrich Paulus to field marshal. There was no precedent of a German field marshal surrendering; Hitler had effectively ordered Paulus to commit suicide.
gMkN4 TIL the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria is elected by writing the names of the top three candidates, putting them in a box and having a five-year old child draw blindly one of the names.
woArE TIL In 1952, the Pakistani army and Pakistani navy communicated a military signal titled “File 1971” that predicted the separation of East Pakistan. Not only did the file predict East Pakistan’s separation but the title coincidentally contains the year in which the separation actually happened
Gnj TIL that “Jupiter is the solar system’s vacuum cleaner, pulling in meteors and comets. Scientists estimate that if it was not for this amazing fact, the number of these objects hitting earth would be about ten thousand times greater.”
7rxAM TIL The Smallpox virus is the first and only infectious human disease to be completely eradicated; the last known case occurred in 1978. Small quantities of the virus still exist in two secure laboratories though; one in the USA and the other in Russia.