› added 8 years ago

163

TIL of William Adams, the first Westerner to be officially given the title of “samurai” by the Shogun of Japan, renamed Miura Anjin.

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jNRVM TIL that of the 5000 or so species of mammals on the planet only female humans have permanent breasts.
Rap8 TIL The FCC does not monitor for excessively loud commercials, but relies solely on consumer complaints.
jNkDQ TIL In 1972, hours after George Wallace was shot in an assassination attempt, Nixon rushed E. Howard Hunt to the shooter's apartment to plant campaign literature for Democrat George McGovern, hoping to sway McGovern supporters to Nixon. Hunt called it off after FBI sealed off the apartment.
a8kK0 TIL: Bamboo will flower and seed every 40-120 years then die off. Because huge areas of bamboo are the same plant, this causes widespread death of bamboo forests, followed by major rat infestations and then famine in parts of the world. It is not known why this happens.
b9v64 TIL President Franklin Pierce didn't swear his oath of office on a Bible. Weeks after his election, Pierce was in a train accident, in which he witnessed his son die before his eyes. He didn’t take the oath on a Bible because he believed his son’s death was God’s judgment for his campaigning.