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TIL that some metro stations in Bucharest have very narrow platforms, because Elena Ceausescu (the wife of Nicolae Ceausescu) wanted less stations in the metroline saying: "youth and working class is starting to get fat, so they need to walk more", so the workers had built those stations in secret.

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7MKO TIL Daniel Tammet, an autistic savant who speaks 10 languages and has the rare capability to explain how his brain works, says numbers have shape, color, and texture. 289 is ugly, 333 attractive, and pi is beautiful.
WkjLY TIL Georgia Governor Talmadge may have been integral in promoting infamous 1946 lynchings and was investigated by the FBI
QJg4a TIL the oldest person to ever complete a marathon is Fauja Singh, who ran the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2011 at the ripe old age of 100 years - also making him the only ever centenarian to do such! He completed the 42 kilometres in a bit over 8 hours.
Lkny0 TIL In 1911 The Rigby family included their cat Tom in their census form. 'Tom Cat' was listed as being an 8-year old, married Mouse-Catcher, Soloist and Thief with 16 children. His birthplace was listed as Cheshire and he was described as being 'speechless' in the infirmity section of the form.
7r4bX TIL A Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming took an August vacation from his work in the lab investigating staph. Upon his return on Sept. 3, 1928, the scientist found a strange fungus on a culture he had left in his lab—a fungus that had killed off all surrounding bacteria in the culture.