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TIL of Charles Lightoller, one of many individuals who used his personal boats to assist in the evacuation of French and British troops at Dunkirk in 1940. Prior to this, he was the senior-most officer to survive the sinking of the RMS Titanic and enforced the "women and children first" order

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N7y86 TIL that a European fungus, accidentally spread to North America in 2006, has caused Bat populations across the US and Canada to plummet by over 90%. Formerly very common bat species now face extinction, having already almost entirely disappeared over the Northeastern US and Eastern Canada
XEvGQ TIL that in 2019, scientists observed the radioactive decay of xenon-124. Described as an "ultra-rare event", Xenon's half-life is one of the slowest observed, with a decay time more than a trillion times longer than the history of the universe.
epy8L TIL that Black pepper has been used in Indian cooking since 2000 BC and was used as a form of commodity money.
kO4g7 TIL Bing Crosby was refused a hotel room for wearing jeans so Levis made him a jean jacket - the Canadian Tuxedo was born
N0Jb TIL: Google successfully tested an automated car that drove 300,000 miles with only one accident, a parking lot fender bender. That occurred when a human was driving.