TIL that people in West Virginia have the same life expectancy as North Koreans
TIL Rwanda's Akagera national park is the largest protected wetland in Africa and safari destination with elephants, lions. But in 1997 it was reduced in size by close to 50% as the land was allocated to populations returning after the 1994 genocide
https://www.akageranationalpark.org/
TIL in WW2, children in the Theresienstadt camp played concentration camp-related games including "gas chamber"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresienstadt_family_camp
TIL that NBC had another sitcom in the works at the same time as Seinfeld also named for its main actor called Ann Jillian that scored better with test audiences than Seinfeld's pilot episode and NBC executives gave a full season order. It was canceled after just one season.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Jillian_(TV_series)
TIL the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine was given to Julius Wagner-Jauregg for curing mental illness by giving patients malaria. (He was, in fact, curing them of syphilis because the malaria fevers are so high that they kill the bacteria. The malaria was subsequently cured with quinine.)
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1927/wagner-jauregg/facts/
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1519yi9/til_the_1927_nobel_prize_in_physiology_and/
TIL about the 1955 Le Mans disaster. It was the most catastrophic crash in motorsport history. Large pieces of debris flew into the crowd, killing 83 spectators and French driver Pierre Levegh, and injuring nearly 180 more
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_Le_Mans_disaster
TIL that the word Blockbuster comes from an actual bomb used during WWII.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockbuster_bomb
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/151922a/til_that_the_word_blockbuster_comes_from_an/
TIL that in Iceland, "playing chess with the Pope" is a phrase that means to defecate.
https://grapevine.is/mag/articles/2019/09/27/just-sayings-ad-tefla-vid-pafann/
TIL that birds are now using anti-bird spikes to build their nests.
https://people.com/birds-use-anti-bird-spikes-to-build-nests-7561396
TIL According to space law Weapons of mass destruction are prohibited in space and Moon and other celestial bodies can only be used exclusively for peaceful purposes.
https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties/introouterspacetreaty.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1518gig/til_according_to_space_law_weapons_of_mass/
TIL Ellar Coltrane Kinney Salmon, the person who played the child in "Boyhood," uses the singular they pronoun and rejects the gender binary. "For me, the binary gender demarcation always has felt just kind of like … a charade, like this character that I have to play."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellar_Coltrane
TIL Ethnically Thai women in Vietnam wear motorcycle helmets specifically adapted for their traditional hairstyle.
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1517r75/til_ethnically_thai_women_in_vietnam_wear/
TIL: The Master Printers of Koryo predate the Gutenburg press with the oldest woodblock dating to 751 AD. However due to repeated wars, countless woodblocks were destroyed due to invaders. In addition, supply constraints, an abundance of booze, scarcity of wood, etc led to slow public adoption.
https://en.unesco.org/courier/december-1978/200-years-gutenberg-master-printers-koryo
TIL that Germany's Exhibitionism law exclusively targets men, essentially violating Germany's own constitutional law for equality.
https://www.lewik.org/term/15678/exhibitionism-section-183-german-criminal-code/
TIL Bilbo isn't actually Frodo's uncle. He's his first cousin once removed.
TIL of Peter Kinloch, who went blind shortly after summiting Mount Everest and had to be abandoned by his team
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/01/british-climber-dies-mount-everest
