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TIL the engineer of the Kalka-Shimla Railway in India killed himself after miscalculation of where two halves of a tunnel would meet

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1yWV TIL that Aki Ra - a former child soldier - has devoted his life to removing landmines, and caring for young landmine victims. He has personally removed and destroyed as many as 50,000 landmines from Cambodia, originally using no more than a knife, a hoe, and a stick
D107v TIL: British Navy officers play Britney Spears songs to scare off Somali pirates. The rationale of playing these songs is because, supposedly, Somali pirates have a strong dislike for western culture and music, which make Britney Spears’ songs a perfect fit to make them move on quickly.
X0VKX TIL On May 7th, 1952, Geoffrey W.A. Dummer first published the concept of the integrated circuit. This breakthrough allowed complex electronic circuits to be built on a single chip, becoming the foundation for modern computers, smartphones, laptops, and countless other electronic devices.
5YvPR TIL that Paul Revere was one of America's first orthodontists, and used walrus teeth as dental implants. The walrus teeth were later helpful for identifying the corpses of his patients that were killed in the Revolutionary war.
4gZa TIL that when John Walker used a stick to stir a pot containing antimony sulfide, potassium chlorate & sulfur, some of the mixture stuck to the end of the stick. When he tried to scrape the lump, it easily caught fire (due to friction) & this led to the birth of friction matches.