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TIL that in 1890 an Oberlin College professor gave a lecture on then-rare aluminum, stating ‘if anyone could make this on a commercial scale, he would be a benefactor to the world and would also make a great fortune.’ In attendance was Charles Hall, who took him up on the challenge – and succeeded.

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Xm9r TIL J.R.R. Tolkien typed the entire “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy while using only two fingers. It ran to over 1,200 pages and took him 14 years.
jGnn TIL Shirley MacLaine’s daughter claims her famous mom believed that her daughter’s father, Steve, was not her real father but a clone of the real one, an astronaut named Paul. For years Steve conned MacLaine into paying him up to $60,000 a month for “Paul’s space travel expenses.”
69ogQ TIL that a bandicoot is an actual animal and not a name made up for the Crash Bandicoot series.
VBZnZ TIL during the 2010 Safeway Classic, LPGA golfer Juli Inkster took practice swings with a weighted "donut" on her 9-iron while waiting to tee off at the 10th hole. She was disqualified after a TV viewer reported the incident to tournament officials, as practice devices are prohibited during rounds.
yV0Z8 TIL in 1980 an American man survived after his core body temperature reached a high of 115°F (46.1°C) due to heatstroke, whereas, in 1999 a Swedish woman survived after her core body temperature dropped to a low of 56.7°F (13.7°C) due to a skiing accident that trapped her under ice for 80 minutes.