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TIL of surrealist poet Robert Desnos who started reading palms of fellow prisoners on their way to the Nazi gas chambers. His excitement was so contagious as he predicted longevity, more children, and abundant joy that the guards were unable to go through with the executions.

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Eg5Zw TIL that in 2004, 1/3 of the men in the Pitcairn Islands were accused of assault. Their defense rested on the fact that British sovereignty of the islands was illegitimate, as the colonists were descended from Royal Navy mutineers. A new Court had to be created specifically to have jurisdiction.
dDy1Q TIL that the largest intact passenger ship on the seabed after sinking is the HMHS Brittanic (sank 1916), sister ship of the RMS Titanic.
wL7MJ TIL Charles "Old Hoss " Radbourn, an MLB pitcher from 1880 to 1891, won 60 games in a single season and is believed to be the first person ever photographed "flipping the bird".
0wN15 TIL of a science fiction novel by Dr. Wernher von Braun named "Project Mars: A Technical Tale". The novel, made in the late 1940s, describes Mars exploration. In this novel, Mars is inhabited by Martian civilization and the leader of the Martian government is entitled "Elon" (Chapter 24 on page 177)
AN7J7 TIL of the proposed Overwhelmingly Large Telescope, whose 100m aperture would have allowed it to see objects 1500x fainter than the Hubble Telescope and analyze extrasolar planets for molecules indicating life. It was cancelled due to the €1.5 billion cost being too high