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TIL in 1971, 80 percent of third-graders walked to school alone. By 1990, that measure had dropped to 9 percent, and now it’s even lower.

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l764a TIL: Richard Stallman, accomplished programmer, launched the GNU Project and is an eccentric advocate for Open Software and pirating. He doesn't use a cell phone, canonized himself as St. IGNUcius of the Church of Emacs, and disliked Jobs. However, he has controversial takes and resigned from MIT.
PYOQe TIL that people with unaided hearing loss earn on average $20,000 less per year than those who use implants or hearing aids.
No86 TIL In 2006, 74 yr. old Luciano Pavarotti was asked to perform at Italy’s Winter Olympic’s opening ceremony. Later that year he was diagnosed with inoperable, stage 4, pancreatic cancer; however, he decided to perform anyways. It was his last performance.
mxNdx TIL that Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen never played chess in their life until the movie X-Men required them to do so. A chess master came in to teach them.
d8kxd TIL China's Qing Dynasty attempted various reforms to try to save itself. Local assemblies had begun to meet in 1909 and the dynasty had worked out a timetable for creating a constitutional monarchy, with a constitution planned for 1912 and a parliament the following year