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TIL In 1769 Alexander Wilson used a Gregorian telescope, with a 26 inch focus and 112 power, to observe an extraordinary sunspot. He concluded that it was a vast excavation in the luminous matter of the Sun

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9wAnm TIL that, inspired by the Maginot Line in France, the British built a defensive network in Hong Kong. Called the Gin Drinkers Line or Oriental Maginot Line, it was designed to hold off a Japanese invasion for six months. Hit by understaffing and a malaria outbreak, it only lasted two days.
l7MJa TIL the song Jeremy by Pearl Jam is a real story about Jeremy Wade Delle who committed suicide in front of his class on January 8, 1991. His death wasn't more than a paragraph in local news Eddie Vedder said that he felt "the need to take that small article and to give it more importance."
X8bR TIL The writing staff of Futurama held 3 Ph.D.s, seven master’s degrees, and cumulatively had more than 50 years at Harvard University. Series writer Patric M. Verrone stated, “we were easily the most overeducated cartoon writers in history”.
xebB TIL that the term “third world” refers to the political allegiance of a country and has nothing to do with its level of development.
yV78e TIL about the Areni-1 leather shoe, the world's oldest piece of leather footwear known to researchers. It was discovered in Armenia, remarkably preserved thanks to the cool, dry cave conditions and a thick layer of sheep dung that acted as a natural seal.