› added 1 year ago

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TIL that the Greenlandic Inuit worked iron both from meteorites and lava flows that formed native iron metal.

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kJvAe TIL that in WWII, a Belgian woman in her twenties was responsible for a smuggling operation called the "Comet Line"; the sole purpose of which was to exfiltrate Allied airmen downed over the skies of fortress Europe.
4kO7a TIL: William R. King is the only U.S. Vice President to take the oath of office on foreign soil. King had tuberculosis and had traveled to Cuba to regain his health. Since he couldn't be in DC to take the oath, Congress passed an act that allowed him to be sworn in near Matanzas, Cuba.
J11kQ TIL that Mr. Smithers on the Simpsons was originally a black man, but they decided to change him because they didn’t want a black man to be subservient to a rich white man.
wL86P TIL: NYC Central Park cost more than Alaska. New York State legislature paid about $7.4 million dollars for 843 acres starting 1853. A few years later in 1867, the US bought the 600,000 square miles of Alaska for $7.2 million
9wOXp TIL Richard Feynman taught a two-year introductory physics course at Caltech from 1961 to 1963 and his original students had no textbook—their only written materials were created "on the fly". These notes were later published and used as the introductory physics textbook for nearly two decades