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176

TIL Sharks have been around on Earth longer than Trees

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1YGd TIL that Dan Bullock altered his birth certificate so that he could join the Marines in 1968. Six months later he became the youngest service member to die in combat in Vietnam. He was 15.
pYWk8 TIL After playing chess for 14 hours a day for months in preperation for the chess world championship, Bobby Fischer was asked what he was going to do now that he had won, his response was: "My goal now is to play more chess, I haven't played enough chess"
wRv6 TIL of Julie D’Aubigny who was a 17th century bisexual French opera singer and fencing master who fought and won at least ten life-or-death duels, performed nightly shows on the biggest opera stage in the world and once took the Holy Orders just so that she could sneak into a convent and shag a nun.
x6685 TIL that the green revolution of the 1950s and 60s led to the widespread reduction--and in some places elimination--of famine and food insecurity. One leading figure in the revolution, Norman Borlaug, is credited with saving at least 1 billion people from starvation.
b9oMQ TIL that William Shakespeare invented many popular phrases for his plays that we still use in everyday life, including: 'vanish into thin air,' 'there's a method to my madness,' 'wild-goose chase",' 'wear my heart upon my sleeve,' 'love is blind,' 'to come full circle,' etc.