› added 8 years ago

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TIL of Neerja Bhanot, a 22 year old Indian air hostess who helped hide 41 American passports aboard a hijacked plane. She died shielding three children from gunfire and was posthumously awarded bravery medals from India, Pakistan, and the United States.

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Rye9 TIL that scientists found a daddy longlegs fossil trapped in amber that has kept an erection for 99 million years
OGkxg TIL the hippocampus has a kind of internal switch that flips the brain between "learning mode" and "remembering mode".
9RWM TIL French Emperor Napoleon wore poison around his neck in case he was captured. When he finally was captured he tried to use it to kill himself, but it had lost its strength and only made him violently ill.
VBJEG TIL Audie Murphy, the most decorated American soldier from World War 2, was initially turned down from the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps for being underweight and underage. He was finally able to enlist after his sister falsified documentation. He ended up playing himself in a movie about him
GaRN TIL That Cleopatra and Mark Antony formed their own drinking club in 41 B.C. and were known to take part in elaborate games and contests and to walk the streets of Alexandria in disguise, pranking the residents