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TIL in Algeria, the largest country in Africa and 35th in world population, women make up 70% of the country’s lawyers and 60% of its judges, as well as dominating the field of medicine. Increasingly, women are contributing more to household income than men. 60% of university students are women.

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b9PMQ TIL that "Social Urbanism" approach to urban planning helped take Medellin from Pablo Escobar's most dangerous city in the world to a "model city" tourist destination. Medellin tackled crime and violence "not through more policing but through urban planning, infrastructure, and social programs."
8a0Yb TIL after WW2, the Japanese researchers who experimented on humans to develop bio- and chemical weapons were given immunity by the US in exchange for their data. Victim accounts were then dismissed as communist propaganda. But, Americans found the data "amateurish" and subsequently returned it.
GAVX5 TIL that the dude who wrote the “…for dummies” book series is the real-life basis for the nerdy character “Mark Ratner” in “fast times at ridgemont high”
5YXrp TIL of Normal Borlaug, the man who saved a billion lives. In the 1970's, he developed a new strain of wheat that was heavily disease resistant and could grow in very arid conditions. Between 1965 and 1970, Pakistan, Mexico, and India more than doubled their food supplies.
awEjZ TIL Anthony Burgess sent a preliminary draft of A Clockwork Orange to Rolling Stone in place of an article and Hunter S. Thompson wrote a letter rejecting Burgess' "limey bullshit" and calling him "cheapjack scum."