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TIL of Toussaint Louverture, the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. Born a slave, his tactical brilliance and commitment to freedom resulted in the abolition of slavery in Haiti in 1793. His leadership saw the island emerge as the first independent republic in Latin America in 1804.

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E1Oow TIL about Anthony Ervin, a swimmer who won a gold medal at the 2000 Olympics, retired at 22, begun abusing drugs, at one moment being hardly able to raise from a sofa for days on end. In 2011 he got back into swimming, and at the 2016 Olympics became the oldest swimmer to win a gold medal.
9YWXB TIL of Gregory Blackstock, an autistic savant born in Seattle who spent his working life as a pot washer. He has created visual lists - astonishingly meticulous drawings of such diverse subjects as The Great Cabbage Family, Classical Clowns, Shoes, American Lighthouses and Great Italian Roosters.
4Z4J TIL that when the Greek ships reached the beach of Troy, no one would jump ashore, since there was a prophecy that the first Greek to jump on Trojan soil would die. Odysseus tossed his shield on the shore and jumped on his shield so the person who was tricked into following him would die instead
x0d1 TIL that Nimrod, recorded in Genesis as “a mighty hunter before the Lord” is now used to mean a dimwitted or stupid person because of Bugs Bunny who sarcastically refers to Elmer Fudd as “nimrod,” an ironic connection between “mighty hunter” and “poor little Nimrod”, i.e. Fudd. No one got the joke.
yQ1Np TIL: Ketchup is a non-newtonian fluid, unlike "magic mud" it's viscosity actually lowers when a force is applied to it. This why ketchup will often pour out in such large unintended quantities after a little shake