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TIL Hildegard of Bingen wrote one of the earliest known constructed languages in the 12th century

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16Z77 TIL that in 1982, to protest Border Patrol inspections that were harming tourism, the city of Key West, FL declared independence. The mayor named himself Prime Minister of the Conch Republic, declared war on the US, surrendered one minute later, then applied for one billion dollars in foreign aid.
16BZD TIL famed Mexican wrestler El Santo's brother was actually the one that innovated a high-flying style of wrestling whereas his impact went beyond the ring and into film.
6Egv8 TIL that in "Man on the Moon", Jim Carrey and Jerry Lawler had an actual feud. Carrey spat in Lawler's face and got him fired. When Lawler was rehired for the Letterman segment, he retaliated by slapping him as hard as he could - much harder than he slapped the real Kaufman during their fake feud.
ZYAo TIL during WWII, Bill Tutte cracked the German Lorenz cipher using nothing more than a pen and paper, and having never seen the machine, after the Germans accidentally sent the same message twice. It is described as one the the greatest intellectual feats of the 20th Century.
a86Ry TIL Rob Bottin, the special effects artist for The Thing (1982) was only 22 when he started his work on the film.