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TIL British colonizers infected Tasmanian Aboriginal women with venereal diseases that left a significant percentage of the population unable to reproduce. This was one of several factors leading the complete eradication of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people.

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GYBNN TIL that writer Isaac Asimov and Star Trek creator Gene Rodenberry died with six months of each other. Asimov helped saved Star Trek from cancellation by writing a fan letter to TV Guide saying it was a "fresh and intellectually challenging science fiction television show". His daughter was a fan.
b6mP7 TIL a depressed man built a secret room within his bedroom containing a homemade guillotine with a timer, took sleeping pills, and set the timer to kill himself without his father knowing what he was doing for months. He was successful.
GAlx1 TIL the notion that lactic acid is the reason we experience muscle soreness after a workout has been debunked in the 1980s. Research suggests the soreness is a result of a cascade of physiological effects in response to microscopic trauma sustained during intense exercise.
RPk7 TIL the least populated timezone in the world is GMT +10.5, which is only occupied by the Lord Howe Islands, a small chain of islands about 400 miles NE of Sydney, Australia with only about 350 people who live on it.
p8VvN TIL author Fyodor Dostoevsky was sentenced to die, led in front of a firing squad, and about to be shot to death when at the last second he was pardoned by the Tsar of Russia.