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TIL that in 2009 Icelandic engineers accidentally drilled into a magma chamber with temperatures up to 1000C (1832F). Instead of abandoning the well like a previous project in Hawaii, they decided to pump water down and became the most powerful geothermal well ever created.

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N7OdE TIL that in Ancient Rome, the high priest of Jupiter was not permitted to touch a horse, sleep three nights outside his own bed or one night outside Rome, or look upon an army.
e0yjk TIL that the Doors' drummer John Densmore vetoed an offer by Cadillac of $15 million to use "Break on Through (To the Other Side)" for advertisement, citing lead singer Jim Morrison's historic and vehement opposition to licensing the Doors' music
ZBpv TIL Queen Victoria survived 8 assassination attempts, 3 of which occurred within 5 weeks of each other, and 1 involving a British army officer who hit her over the head with a cane.
AN08x TIL after Game 4 of the 2011 NBA Finals, in which Mavs star Dirk Nowitzki was dealing with a fever, Heat players LeBron James and Dwyane Wade made fun of him and mocked his coughs. Nowitzki responded with a 29-point effort in a Game 5 win, and the Mavs won the NBA Championship one game later
VO5B TIL In Australia, cavities in the ground left by fossils will sometimes fill with a liquid containing dissolved opals. When the liquid evaporates, the opal remains, forming opalised fossils. The best example of this is a 6m long Plesiosaur skeleton, completely made of opal (more sources in comments)