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TIL Soviet ballet prodigy Rudolf Nureyev was from a Muslim Tartar family and started dance in Bashkir folk performances. On tour in Paris, he escaped the KGB to socialize at gay bars and with foreigners. In retaliation for defecting to the West, he was banned from seeing his mother for 25 years.

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5YO5B TIL James Harrison holds the record for 1000 blood plasma donations and has helped save more than 2 million babies, since his blood plasma, which contains an unusual antibody, was used to develop Anti-D injection that prevents the rhesus disease among new born babies.
16arW TIL about a deep-sea fish called the stoplight loosejaw. It is so called because its lower jaw has no floor and it shines red light from photophores under its eyes, which it uses like headlights. Most deep-sea creatures can't detect it because no red light filters down to them from the sun.
ADyVd TIL: In 1457 a man and his pig was put on trial and the pig was sentenced to death in Savigny, France for eating a young boy. Three lawyers were present at the trial. Two for the prosecution, and one for the defense of the pig.
OoV97 TIL The Russian island of Big Diomede and the U.S. island of Little Diomede located in the Bering Strait are separated by the International Date Line, making Big Diomede 21 hours ahead of Little Diomede even though they are separated by about 2.4 miles (3.8 km)
4XlpX TIL of the condition Hikikomori which is seen among the youth of Japan and is also seen in UK, US, etc. Hikikomoris are reclusive adolescents or adults who withdraw from society and seek extreme degrees of isolation and confinement. It is estimated that there are about a million hikikomoris in Japan