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TIL that in the 17th century, lacking chemical tests (and knowledge of disease transmission), Italian physician and autopsy pioneer Antonio Valsalva sometimes tasted the fluids he encountered in cadavers in an effort to better characterize them. "Gangrenous pus does not taste good," he wrote.

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VBEB0 TIL that in 1956, the Comics Code Authority tried to prevent a story from being printed because it involved a black astronaut, even though this was never actually forbidden by the Code. Fortunately, the publisher managed to get the CCA to back down by threatening to take the matter to court.
BZyx TIL in 2009 Stephen Colbert won a NASA competition to have a module of the ISS named after him, but NASA opted to name it ‘Tranquility’ instead. They did, however, name a treadmill on the ISS after him. It is called the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (C.O.L.B.E.R.T.)
ne8ZB TIL that Danielle Steel has sold over 600 million copies, outselling such iconic authors such as Stephen King and J.K. Rowling
M70Y7 TIL Nobel Peace Prize laureate Henry Kissinger is considered to be one of the largest influences on soccer's popularity in the United States. In his youth, he often defied Nazi racial laws to sneak into stadiums to watch matches, and he was named chairman of the North American Soccer League in 1978.
Rew8 TIL that in 1976, during the height of the Cold War, Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko defected to the West - taking with him the highly secretive MiG-25 fighter plane.