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TIL that in 1926, the Poltiburo of the Soviet Union was made up of seven men, Joseph Stalin, Nikolai Bukharin, Mikhail Tomsky, Grigory Zinoviev, Leon Trotsky, Lev Kamenev, and Alexei Rykov. By 1940, Stalin was the only one of them left alive, having killed all of the other members.

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Vj4Z TIL in 2009 a bomb disposal officer saved a group of maimed soldiers after they became trapped in a field littered with IED’s. Against a backdrop of insurgent fire, the sergeant shunned protective clothing to save time and dismantled 7 consecutive bombs, clearing a safe path for the wounded.
Bg4JK TIL Clever Hans, a horse, who performed various mathematical, musical, and language tasks, like arithmetic operations, telling the time, differentiating between musical tones, and understanding and spelling German. He is thought to have been eaten by hungry soldiers in WW1 after being drafted.
bRyZ TIL that a 2007 study discovered a negative correlation between IQ and chess skill in strong players
oBP4E TIL that in the 9th century Chinese alchemists in search of the elixir of life created a mixture of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal. Ironically, short of a path to immortality, they had discovered gunpowder.
vPbL4 TIL that Enzo Ferrari chose not to get too close to his drivers, out of fear of emotionally hurting himself, after the death of Ferrari driver Alberto Ascari in 1955. Later in life, he relented his position and grew very close to Gilles Villeneuve, who would also die driving a Ferrari in 1982