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TIL the Pioneer plaque man and woman were originally intended to be shown holding hands, but Carl Sagan soon realized that an extraterrestrial might perceive them as a single creature rather than two organisms.

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8evmP TIL NFL great Jim Brown retired at only 29 while filming "The Dirty Dozen"
5XBr TIL that in 1980, a US Airman dropped a wrench socket, which fell 80 feet and pierced a Titan II missile, causing rocket fuel to leak and eventually explode, ejecting the nuclear warhead to the edge of the launch complex.
GAPv7 TIL about the Ainu, the original indigenous inhabitants of Japan
rRPKw TIL about the Republic of Vermont, an independent republic that lasted from 1777 to 1791, which, after breaking away from Quebec, fought with the Americans against the British in the Revolutionary War, and was admitted to the union as a counterweight to the slave state of Kentucky.
kOA6d TIL Robert E Lee was depressed during and after the civil war. After Gettysburg he walked around telling his soldiers "It's all my fault" and before his surrender he was observed to be deeply saddened, wandering aimlessly by himself, carrying a piece of chicken for which he could find no hunger