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137

TIL Forrest Gump was based on a book, and the book had a sequel in which they mention the movie and Forrest meets Tom Hanks, specifically as to avoid being able to make a movie from that book

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JYGAv TIL of Thales of Miletus, The first known individual to whom a mathematical discovery has been attributed. Thales used geometry to calculate the heights of pyramids and the distance of ships from the shore. He is also the first known individual to use deductive reasoning applied to geometry
XdxP TIL Humans did not evolve from either of the living species of chimpanzees. Humans and chimpanzees did, however, evolve from a common ancestor. The two modern species (common chimpanzees and bonobos) are humans’ closest living relatives.
nW4A9 TIL about the Index Thomisticus, a 34 year long project beginning in 1946 to make a machine readable concordance of the works of Thomas Aquinas, that required manually recording 10,631,980 Latin words onto punched cards and took a total of 1 million hours of human work to complete
R7jL6 TIL about Albert Pierrepoint, an English hangman who executed between 435 and 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956. During his tenure he hanged over 200 people convicted of war crimes in Germany and Austria, as well as some high-profile murderers.
MjYm TIL that John McCain, while a POW in Vietnam, was pressured to give the names of his squadron members. He instead gave them the names of the Green Bay Packers offensive line.