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TIL that in soviet Russia there was a civilian award for bearing and raising 7 or more children called “The Order of Maternal Glory”

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MLN8 TIL in 1926 a Pasadena mailman planted some avocado seeds intending to graft with the desirable Fuerte variety. The graft repeatedly failed on one tree and he was going to cut it down, but was advised to “wait and see what happens”. It became the mother tree from which all Hass avocados originate.
VMpxQ TIL in 2007, Navy SEAL Mike Day was shot 27 times by four Al Qaeda gunmen and hit by grenade shrapnel, but he killed all four of the gunmen and walked out to the extraction helicopter. He recovered and is living with his wife and daughters.
yVo4M TIL: The Kraken isn't actually in Greek mythology and I've spent my whole life fooled by something invented by the 1981 film Clash of the Titans
ZEDD TIL Alex the Parrot is the only non-human animal to have ever asked an existential question. It also had a vocabulary of 100+ words.
dDeYd TIL about KC Paul, an Indian man who has spent almost 40 years trying to prove that the sun revolves around the earth