› added 2 days ago

TIL of the role of Groom of the Stool, which was initially responsible for supplying their king with a toilet stool, bowl, water, towels, and physically cleaning their anus

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6EbD7 TIL Yuan Shikai was elected the first official president of the Republic of China, and was active in establishing modern industrial, judicial and educational systems as well as unifying the currency. As a young man, Yuan was also sent to Korea as supreme adviser on Korean government policies
x6opg TIL Gary Larson made more than cartoon panels and also made an animated short film called "Tales From The Far side"
M7xv0 TIL Thomas Jefferson paid journalists to report that John Adams was a hermaphrodite as part of a smear campaign
8awDX TIL that when Randy Pausch from the Last Lecture, who dreamed of "being Captain Kirk", was given a fatal diagnosis of pancreatic he received an autographed picture of Kirk from William Shatner that read "I don't believe in the no-win scenario"
eprMD TIL that airline pilots routinely fall asleep mid-flight — and in one shocking study, 43% admitted they had woken up only to find their co-pilot asleep too.