› added 3 years ago

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TIL of Al Schmid, a US marine who continued to man his machine gun on Guadalcanal even after being permanently blinded by a Japanese grenade, and later received the Navy Cross for his actions

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v1a7r TIL that Pluto was not only named after the god of the underworld, but the first two letters were a homage to Percival Lowell, the scientist who initiated the search for a celestial body beyond Neptune.
Ooxp4 TIL stunt performer Bobby Leach was the second person to go over Niagra Falls in a barrel. He was rescued three times from attempts to swim the Niagra Whirlpool Rapids. He died of a broken leg after slipping on an orange peel.
oRP6K TIL malaria was common in the United States until it was eradicated in 1951
ODv7 TIL that an international team of astronomers has spotted the farthest known gravitational lens and, as Albert Einstein predicted, it is a galaxy that deflects and intensifies the light of a much further object.
7rm6O TIL: Gouveneur Morris (NY), an abolitionist founding father died "after causing himself internal injuries and an infection while using a piece of whalebone as a catheter to attempt clearing a blockage in his urinary tract."