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TIL Christopher Columbus used a book of astronomical tables when the next lunar eclipse would take place and use it to warn the indigenous people in Jamaica to treat his crew better or else the moon would rise red. Lunar eclipse happened, and they pleaded Columbus to restore the moon.

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NXy6b TIL that the political terms "left-wing" and "right-wing" originated during the French Revolution. From the front of the Assembly, the aristocracy sat on the right side (or right wing) of the room, and the commoners sat on the left side (or left wing) of the room.
ADejw TIL the IRA tried to kill the UK Cabinet in 1991 by launching 3 mortar shells at 10 Downing Street from a specially modified Ford Transit van. One missed by 30 yards. Had any of the shells hit the target, it's likely the entire UK cabinet would have been killed
Rxb1 TIL French numbers are normally expressed in base 10, but numbers 60-99 are expressed in base 20. The French word for 80 is quatre-vingts, literally “four twenties”, and the word for 75 is soixante-quinze, literally “sixty-fifteen”.
v1od4 TIL despite the widespread modern belief that the Library of Alexandria was burned once and cataclysmically destroyed, the Library actually declined gradually over the course of several centuries.
YpXdW TIL while filming ‘The Princess Bride,’ André the Giant said his favorite thing about being on set was that “nobody looked at him strangely or singled him out because of his immense size.”