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TIL about Encephalitis lethargica. Known as sleepy sickness, it was a 10 year epidemic with no known cause and continues sporadically today.

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wJeM TIL there is an unfinished skyscraper in Caracas, Venezuela, that is home to 2,500 squatters. Residents have improvised basic utility services, use motorcycles to travel between the lower floors, and the building has many bodegas and an unlicensed dentist.
OroY TIL 1816 was called “The Year Without a Summer” after the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia. Crop failure forced Joseph Smith to leave Vermont, and his journeys resulted in “The Book of Mormon,” the dreary rain in Switzerland drove Mary Shelley to stay indoors, where she wrote “Frankenstein.”
WkY1N TIL The Battle of the Somme ended with roughly 420,000 British, 200,000 French, and 500,000 German casualties, the result of the 141-day battle was the British frontline moving just 6 miles into German territory.
OoYM6 TIL that using sign language, a caretaker communicated female chimp that her own baby died, to which the female chimp signed back "CRY" "touching her cheek and drawing her finger down the path a tear would make on a human" (chimps can't shed tears)
yQ0EX TIL Some children who develop myopia (nearsightedness) have a continual progression of their myopia throughout the school years, including high school. Myopia is one of the most common eye disorders in the world and by 2050, roughly half of the world's population will be nearsighted