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TIL that a carpenter got an MIT PhD. After his sailboat almost sank during a storm, Lyman Page decided to go to graduate school in physics. He went to MIT unannounced, got an unpaid night job in a lab, and worked as a carpenter. The job turned into a PhD, and Page is now a Princeton professor.

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jNpDv TIL that the largest Masonic Temple in the world, the Detroit Masonic Temple, was saved from foreclosure in 2013 by Jack White of the White Stripes. White paid off $142,000 owed in back taxes by the Temple due to the fact that it had given his mother a job as an usher when she was in need.
4kaNw TIL in 2011 a Canadian woman survived 48 days in Nevada's wilderness subsisting on candy, trail mix & snow before she heard rescuers in the distance & alerted them. Her husband had left for help after their minivan broke down but never returned & was later discovered having likely died from exposure
JYM7j TIL that David Grohl refused to have his band's music on Glee. "The guy who created Glee is so offended that we're not, like, begging to be on his fcking show," said Grohl. "Fck that guy for thinking anybody and everybody should want to do Glee."
oBAvW TIL that underweight models are banned in Israel to fight against anorexia.
P1jBZ TIL the Climax mine, the largest molybdenum mine in the world, was originally sold for $40,000 in 1918 (~$800,000 today) because the prospector had no idea what the mineral was. The mine would later go on to supply 3/4 of the world's molybdenum, being an important alloy in jet engines.