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TIL the U.S. Navy tried to remove a whale carcass with dynamite. A veteran with explosives training warned the amount of dynamite was far too much – advice that went unheeded. His brand-new car, purchased during a "Get a Whale of a Deal" promotion, was then flattened by a chunk of falling blubber.

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gMAVW TIL in 1924, a Russian scientist started blood transfusion experiments, hoping to achieve eternal youth. After 11 blood transfusions, he claimed he had improved his eyesight and stopped balding. He died after a transfusion with a student suffering from malaria and TB (The student fully recovered).
6ENoQ TIL about David Voelkert, a 38 year-old who befriended a 17 year-old teen on Facebook and told her he wanted to kill his ex-wife. The teen was actually his ex who got him arrested. David was freed after he gave a notorized affidavit to prove he knew all along it was his ex trying to mess with him.
woeJ1 TIL of Lazarus and Joannes Baptista Colloredo, Italian conjoined twins who toured freak shows in 17th-century Europe. As reported by Henri Sauval, Lazarus was sentenced to death for killing a man, but averted the execution by pointing out that this would also kill his innocent twin brother.
1aXn8 TIL squeezing pimples in areas of your face can get you a brain infection.
ZpM8p TIL of Douglas Adams's posthumous role as Agrajag in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series. Adams never recorded the lines for Agrajag and was dead by the time the BBC revived the series. Agrajag's lines are actually clips from Adams's reading of his books, recorded many years before.