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TIL the Hawaii state flag has existed in its current form since the islands were a monarchy, and was commissioned by King Kamehameha to resemble both the US and UK flag in order to avoid being dragged by either side into the War of 1812

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r6Gx TIL the International Space Station runs Linux as an operating system and has had it’s computers infected with viruses more than once. It is also travelling at 5 miles per second and orbits Earth every 92 minutes.
4XrMJ TIL, although the narrator begins Moby Dick with the famous opening, "Call me Ishmael," he is not stating his actual name. Rather he is briefly representing his back story with that of Ishmael from the book of Genesis, who was the cast-out son of Abraham born to a slave woman named Hagar.
ANmdw TIL that, in 1967, Joseph Stalin's daughter briefly lived in East Berlin, Pennsylvania after defecting to the United States
N7466 TIL No Y chromosome genes from neanderthals exist, suggesting that all human-neanderthal hybrids were female. The leading theory is that the Y Neanderthal chromosome triggered immune responses, causing miscarriages.
J17a8 TIL A German horse was taught math.. except it was later found that the horse had learnt to recognise human reactions to its answers and was just "counting up to the answer" until it got the right reaction