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TIL Thomas Jefferson invented the swivel chair.

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oWWo TIL the first recorded flight of a human with artificial wings happened in the year 6 CE. Emperor Kao Yang liked to strap kites to his prisoners and throw them off of towers. One lucky guy, Yuan Huang T'ou, got a kite that worked well enough to carry him safely to the ground.
b6Epa TIL The Volkswagen Type 1 was not officially called the Beetle until 1968; thirty years after the first model was built.
GAeNG TIL that the term “banana republic” was coined by short story writer O. Henry, while he was living in Honduras to avoid his US trial for embezzlement.
p17b TIL Neil Degrasse Tyson has said that if China leaked a memo that they were building military bases on Mars, the U.S. would be there in 10 months.
yQOEa TIL: about Operation Gunnerside. 75 years ago 11 Norwegian commandos on skis infiltrated and destroyed a Nazi chemical plant developing the Atomic Bomb. They never fired a shot and Historians believe this set the Nazis back far enough for the US to develop The Bomb first.