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TIL that Ronald Reagan practically launched Tom Clancy’s career, when he mentioned his enjoyment of a largely unknown techno-thriller named The Hunt For Red October during a speech in 1984.

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l47N TIL the Challenger astronauts did not perish during the explosion, but instead were most likely conscious during a 2-3 second freefall from an altitude of 65,000 feet before the intact crew cabin plunged into the Atlantic ocean going over 200 mph.
V4dQ TIL a 2001 study found up to 70% of female high school students in Tokyo had been groped while riding the train
X077j TIL about the Phantom Time Hypothesis, a conspiracy that suggests that the AD dating system was fabricated to place Holy Roman Emperor Otto III, Pope Sylvester II, and Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII at 1000 AD. According to this, the years AD 614 - 911 (the early Middle Ages) never happened.
jAYM TIL that high-fiber diets work to lower your cholesterol in a roundabout way: by interfering with bile absorption in the intestines. Because the bile can’t get absorbed as well, the bile gets flushed out with your poop, and so the body makes more bile salts, using cholesterol as fuel.
VB5Lk TIL scientists in 2007 managed to resurrect an ancient retrovirus using virus DNA fragments embedded in the human genome.