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TIL because of a 1954 report on illiteracy, Houghton Mifflin's edu director gave Theodor Geisel with a list of 348 words he thought 1st graders should learn, asking Geisel to cut it down to 250 and to use those words to write a book. Geisel returned using 236 of them in his book, The Cat in the Hat.

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VMmak TIL Mice with vision enhanced by nanotechnology can see both infrared and visible light. A single injection of nano-particles in the mice's eyes gave them infrared vision for around 10 weeks with minimal side effects.
R7bow TIL creation of the most sacred fire in a Zoroastrian temple requires combining flames from 16 different sources, one of which is a funeral pyre; however, funeral pyres are forbidden in Zoroastrianism as corpses are thought to defile the flame.
XlXr TIL An elite French Cavalry Unit was surrounded by the Russians who ordered them to Surrender at the Battle of Eylau in 1806. A french colonel retorted “Have a look at my men and tell me if they look like ones who want to surrender!”. They then Charged and hacked their way back to the French lines.
P7mL TIL that wolves with black pelts owe their distinctive coloration to a mutation which occurred in domestic dogs, and was carried to wolves through wolf-dog hybridization.
e0EQb TIL that the British town of Berwick Upon Tweed has changed between being part of Scotland and England 14 times. At one point its status was so ambiguous that declarations of war had to specify that nations were at war with "Scotland, England, and Berwick Upon Tweed."