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TIL formations called "the Devil's Corkscrew" were first found around Harrison, Nebraska, in 1891, and were once thought to be extinct forms of sea sponges, but it turns out they are actually fossilized dens of an extinct type of beaver called Palaeocastor.

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yQG5X TIL the Black Death was originally spread to Europe in the 14th century by Mongols catapulting infected corpses into an Italian trading outpost in Crimea, who fled and unwittingly carried the disease back to Sicily where it proceeded to wipe out up to 60% of Europe's population in four years
xVJrD TIL about Pfeilstörche, storks who appeared in Europe with arrows stuck in their bodies. The arrows were from African hunters, providing proof of migration.
ggo7 TIL An ad campaign used DNA found on discarded cigarette butts to construct digital portraits to publicly shame litterbugs
v1kjr TIL that in 1980, a Somali government prisoner was sentenced to life in solitary confinement. He contemplated suicide until the prisoner in the next cell tapped out the words of a book in modified Morse code.
xB0o TIL George Holliday, the man who filmed Rodney King being beaten, met King only once, months later, randomly at a gas station. King thanked him for saving his life.