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TIL Thomas Hicks ran the 1904 Olympic marathon while drinking a mix of strychnine, egg whites and brandy which made him hallucinate and become sick. His trainers had to carry him over the finish line but he was still declared the winner, with the slowest gold medal time in Olympic marathon history.

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N7oAE TIL in the 60's Capel Celyn, Wales was flooded to provide drinking water to Liverpool forcing the inhabitants to leave. After the flooding the English MPs had a tea party on location which was quickly destroyed by the furious villagers. This launched a Nationalist movement which continues to grow.
kJxa5 TIL Lucifers was slang for early matches, which smelled like sulphur and "could ignite explosively"
vQ0j TIL that in Civilization V, the theme song for Alexander the Great is the oldest surviving complete musical composition, including musical notation, from anywhere in the world
PYNNg TIL We broke the sound barrier before a man summited Mt. Everest. That's a speed exceeding 662 mph, at an altitude of 43,000 feet, in a ROCKET PLANE, four years before a man could climb to 29,029 feet, with the help of a Nepalese sherpa on his 39th birthday.
Z8W6p TIL Tsuyama massacre (1938) was the deadliest shooting by lone gunman in Japanese history. This happened because women in village rejected his sexual advances. So, 21 years old Mutsuo Toi went rampage and killed 30 people with his shotgun, axe and katana. Toi's grandma was also one of the victims