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TIL Stephen Hawking found his Undergraduate work 'ridiculously easy' to the point where he was able to solve problems without looking at how others did it. Even his examiners realised that "they were talking to someone far cleverer than most of themselves".

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w0rM TIL in 1948 the legendary guitarist Les Paul shattered his right arm and elbow in a near-fatal automobile accident. The doctors told him that they could not rebuild his elbow, so he decided to put it in a good angle so he could keep playing guitar.
neYko TIL the USSR considered Darwinian evolution a lie created by "bourgeois capitalism", and instead opted for Lamarckian evolution for political reasons. The failure of Soviet biologists to acknowledge natural selection resulted in a series of crop failures and food shortages.
Oo9p4 TIL of Joe Ekins, a Sherman Firefly gunner, who had never fired his gun in combat before, destroyed 3 Tiger tanks in 12 minutes.
lPRB TIL English words for livestock (cow, sheep) are Germanic-based and the words for meats (beef, mutton) are French-based because in the Middle Ages the people who raised the animals were Anglo-Saxon peasants and the people who ate them were Norman aristocrats
nBE7 TIL The fake prop money used in Rush Hour 2 was too accurate. After extras tried to spend what was left lying around after the climax was filmed, the Secret Service raided and seized $100 million in fake bills from the prop maker and accused them of counterfeiting.