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TIL the myth of a Deaf Frenchman and a hearing American teaching each other their languages on an ocean voyage in 1816, prior to establishing the first school for the Deaf in the US is not only true, but meticulously-documented. (And The Lincoln statue hands really do show his initials in ASL.)

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BVBy TIL of a species of snake in south east Asia commonly known as the “Flying Snake.” Not only can it climb trees, but it can then glide through the air from one tree to the next, slithering its body to create lift, achieving distances of 100m - more than any other gliding animal.
OMe TIL that in 1752 Voltaire wrote a science fiction story about an alien from a planet orbiting the star Sirius who meets another alien from Saturn, and then they both travel to Earth. In 1752.
0l5R TIL During the second world war a Soviet pilot was shot down while returning from a reconnaissance misson and hid in the nearby woods, When a German fighter pilot landed nearby to investigate, the soviet pilot rushed out, stole the Germans plane, and flew home.
xKb1 TIL naturalist John Muir “kidnapped” Theodore Roosevelt from a party and took him into the wilderness to see the beauty of Yosemite, in turn prompting the U.S. president to double the number of national parks
D1noJ TIL Xenophanes (c. 570 – c. 475 BC) was the first person known to have used fossils as evidence for a theory of the history of the Earth. Having discovered fossils of marine life on a mountain he posited they were once underwater.