› added 1 year ago

50

TIL immediately after his Gettysburg speech, Lincoln came down with a mild case of smallpox to which he quipped: "For once in my life as president, I am in a position to give everybody something."

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xVNJ7 TIL Quebec engineering students invented a giant vacuum to clean up microplastics from beaches. At about 3 gallons/minute, it sucks sand into a tank which then separates particles by weight, so plastic can be filtered out.
EgxMX TIL that scientists managed to virtually reconstruct the destroyed planetary system of the star WD 1145+017 by analysing the debris field around the star. Giving birth to the field of astronomy dedicated to studying destroyed planets known as Necroplanetology.
wLNYo TIL there is a video description feature during tv broadcasts for visually impaired that explains visually important actions that would otherwise be lost to those that can’t see.
x6e7D TIL that an ankylosaur fossil was discovered in 2011 so flawlessly preserved that some of its skin, armor, and stomach contents were still intact.
Ybbx TIL a comedian named Tommy Cooper died on stage and the audience thought it was part of the show.