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TIL in 1997 Russia tried manually docking a supply vessel to the Mir space station using only a handheld laser range finder, stopwatch, and remote control joysticks. It went badly, but visiting NASA astronaut Michael Foale managed to save Mir by MacGyvering sailing technique with physics knowledge.

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BrYgb TIL of Junaid, an orphan from Bangladesh who lived in the streets surviving on scrap food, put himself through school by working as a carpenter, fisherman, almost died in an accident, worked at a brick factory while recovering from it and was accepted into a top engineering school
4k4oX TIL Yoko Ono, the controversial former wife of the Beatles' John Lennon, is one of the most successful dance club artists on Billboard, with 13 #1 dance club hits and ranking as the 11th most successful dance club artist of all time by Billboard
5rKn TIL when police raided a dog fighting ring in South Carolina, 8 suspects attempted to flee the scene. One of the suspects was taken into custody after one of the dogs chased him and “took him down”. The dog then escaped.
N7bV8 TIL that in Taiwan, Father's Day is on August 8th. This was determined by the fact that the eighth (ba) day of the eighth (ba) month makes two "eights" (八八, ba-ba), which sounds similar to the colloquial word for "daddy" (ba-ba，爸爸)
VPGp TIL: A Public Defender dared a deputy sheriff to arrest her, then sued for false arrest, and won (sort of). Both sides effectively told to grow up.