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TIL as a graduate student at UC Berkeley, mathematician George Dantzig showed up late to a statistics class and mistook two famously unsolved statistics problems as a homework assignment. He solved them and turned them in a few days later, believing his assignment was overdue.

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ODMY TIL that while Alexander the Great conquered the known world, he never attempted to attack the city-state of Sparta.
wLdRM TIL of the word kleptocracy, which is a government with corrupt leaders that use their power and position to advance their own personal wealth.
oRK67 TIL Australia's first ever medal won at the Winter Olympics was a gold medal in Short Track Skating and the skater, Steven Bradbury, was dubbed "the accidental hero" after winning in a very bizarre sequence of his rivals colliding in all the elimination phases (quarter-finals, semi-finals and final)
oR70R TIL Moose sound like a chainsaw trying to start.
l7KBN TIL in 1791 at the Battle of Wabash, approximately one-quarter of the entire U.S. Army was destroyed in one day by Native American forces.