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101

TIL of the Transfermium Wars, a controversy between US and Soviet scientists about the names of super-heavy elements. The final outcome was to name element 104 as "rutherfordium", element 105 as "dubnium" and element 106 as "seaborgium", which more closely matched the US than the Soviet proposals.

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kVpB TIL that after injecting cocaine into his urethra, a man suffered “‘extravagant complications’ that led to the loss of both legs, nine fingers and his penis.”
6O8m TIL: JFK said this: ’… I do ask every publisher, every editor, and every newsman in the nation to reexamine his own standards, and to recognize the nature of our country’s peril.“ (and much more), in a speech given to the, American Newspaper Publishers Association, on April 27, 1961.
PJdw TIL the primitive immune system of a horseshoe crab makes them useful to humans. Every drug certified by the FDA must be tested using an extract from their blood cells. Their blood is worth ~$15,000 a quart. A horseshoe crab can be bled, returned to the ocean, and after time, can give blood again.
OYXe TIL the U.S. is the only country that does not dip its flag to the host country at the Olympics opening ceremonies. When the U.S. flag-holder was asked to do so for King Edward VII at the 1908 London games, he supposedly responded, “This flag dips to no earthly king.”
6EVp7 TIL that after 2 years of using a Catalan mercenary company to fight the Turks, the Byzantine emperor betrayed the company and tried to wipe them out in 1305. The mercenaries went on a rampage so destructive that the monks of Mount Athos only lifted their ban of Catalan citizens in the year 2000.