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85

TIL in 585 BC a solar eclipse occurred in the middle of a battle between the Lydians and the Medes. They promptly ceased fighting and signed a peace treaty.

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d9E9 TIL The British outlawed the worship of Sopona, the god of smallpox, in Nigeria after a doctor infiltrated a powerful cult of the god’s priests and discovered they were deliberately spreading the disease in a plot to increase their power.
VM1mm TIL Sometime around 1500 A.D., an African farmer planted a maize seed imported from the New World. Today, maize accounts for more than half the calories people consume in many African countries. Maize supplanted Africa’s own historical grain crops—sorghum, millet, and rice
rPJw TIL: a 14 year old boy needed 13L of blood during emergency surgery decided that when he was 18 he was going to start giving blood. Doctors discovered a rare antibody in his blood. He has saved over 2.4 million unborn babies over 5 decades.
XEWaQ TIL Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. won a Grammy in 1971 for Best Spoken Word Recording for “Why I Oppose The War In Vietnam”
mBpv TIL Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem and her birth name is Neta-Lee Hershlag