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TIL There are three-dimensional shapes which roll as smoothly as spheres which are not spheres

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vPBJr TIL that from 1969 to 1971, shortly after it's closing, Alcatraz Island was taken over and occupied by Indigenous Indians to protest the use of their land for the prison
e0ymn TIL in 1952, a nuclear reactor in Canada had a partial meltdown. American and Canadian service personnel disassembled the reactor a few minutes at a time to limit radioactive exposure. Jimmy Carter was one of the Americans. His experience led him to cease development of the neutron bomb as POTUS.
10y7 TIL in 1910, when asked how much vacation time a worker should take annually, President Taft recommended 3 months
e0EMJ TIL about the Phytosaurs, an order of reptiles that went extinct at the end of the Triassic. Despite not being closely related, they looked and behaved very similarly to modern crocodilians, in a remarkable example of convergent evolution.
5VQnR TIL that Martha's Vineyard constitutes the County of Dukes County. This redundant name is due to the fact that it was formed as Dukes County in New York before being transferred to Massachusetts and reincorporated under its current name in 1695.