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TIL in 1952, a nuclear reactor in Canada had a partial meltdown. American and Canadian service personnel disassembled the reactor a few minutes at a time to limit radioactive exposure. Jimmy Carter was one of the Americans. His experience led him to cease development of the neutron bomb as POTUS.

5VVjk TIL of Sijctghen, a 17th-century duck who laid over 100 eggs a year. In 1647, the Dutch Golden Age artist Aelbert Cuyp was commissioned to paint her portrait. Sijctghen died in October 1650, at the age of 23.
Nrd8 TIL Luis von Ahn took CAPTCHA (the squiggly silly words you type when you sign up for something online) and turned it into a worldwide mass text deciphering tool, using people like you and I to digitize all the books that exist in the world, one word at a time.
keNd TIL Ex-Prime Minister of Australia Bob Hawke once held the world-speed record for beer drinking. In his memoirs he suggested that this single feat may have contributed to his political success more than any other, by endearing him to a voting population with a strong beer culture.
a8wmN TIL supersonic flight was made possible because of the 'flying tailplane', where the rear wing moved as one surface as opposed to flaps at the back of the wing. At near Mach speeds a planes nose is forced downward due to 'Mach tuch', the flying tailplane allowed pilots to maintain control.
MGJ0 TIL that the man who discovered the age of the Earth, Clair Patterson, was also responsible for one of our greatest public health interventions, the ban of lead additives in gasoline.