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TIL former Miami Dolphins Fullback Robert Konrad fell overboard from his 38-foot boat and swam for over 16 miles to shore overnight. Suffering from hypothermia once reaching shore, he said it was “bittersweet” because he had no strength to walk.

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WkVxB TIL that in 552 AD two monks successfully smuggled silkworm eggs in their walking sticks from China to the Byzantine Empire, essentially ending the silk monopolies of China and Persia, and bringing silk manufacture to Europe
p8RGN TIL that in an attempt to make his spy novels feel more authentic, author John Le Carré is credited with coining a number of terms for his fictional intelligence agency (terms like mole, honey trap, pavement artist, asset babysitter) which have become common terms used in real intelligence agencies.
m1DLY TIL that Caesar was just a normal family name that originally meant ‘having thick hair’. Due to the exploits of Julius Caesar it became a generic title for Roman emperors and then influenced other languages like German (Kaiser), Russian (Tsar), and Arabic (Qayṣar)
x66R5 TIL Microsoft held a mock funeral for iPhone because they thought the windows phone 7 was going to smash apple in sales
x6Zpk TIL about Eleno de Cespedes, the mixed-race intersex transgender soldier and surgeon who survived the Spanish Inquisition. When Eleno married a woman, he was arrested on charges of homosexuality, transvestism, and witchcraft. He was only convicted of bigamy and was released after a short jail term.