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TIL in 1962 Brendon Grimshaw bought Moyenne Island in Seychelles for £8k. He planted 16k trees on the island and bred giant Aldabra tortoises. He was the sole inhabitant of the island until his death in 2012. Instead of selling it for $50m, it was declared a national park is the world's smallest.

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16g14 TIL about state adjutants general, who are the commanders of their state's military forces. They are appointed by the Governor in all states and territories that have them (the CMNI and AS doesn't), except for DC where POTUS appoints, and Vermont whose General Assembly elects for a 2-year term.
XE86E TIL that the pain you feel from chewing on tin foil is called galvanic shock. Aluminum foil and other metals in your mouth have an electrochemical potential difference. Combined with saliva, which produces a wet, salty environment that’s ideal for the transfer of energy, creating a shock of voltage.
Ypydx TIL: Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense, the pamphlet that helped gain support for American Independence, was one of the first people to publicly doubt Jesus Christ existed. Prior Christian skeptics simply believed Christ wasn't the son of God.
VAy4 TIL In 1906 a German shoemaker, Wilhelm Voigt, impersonated a military officer and tricked a group of soldiers into helping him rob a small town. Kaiser Willhelm II thought it was so funny that he personally pardoned Voigt.
p8eeG TIL: Shanghai was one of the few places that didn't require an entry visa in the years before WWII, so thousands of Jews fleeing Germany went there. Because German authorities required a visa to leave, Ho Feng Shan, the consul-general in Austria, made "fake" visas, over his superior's objections.