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TIL that in the 5th century, St. Benedict wrote a rule book for monks. He convinced them to be celibate, poor, to get up in the middle of the night to pray, to engage in hard labor and almost no conversation, to obey the orders of their abbott … but he couldn’t convince them to give up the booze.

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BeND TIL Marie Curie (née Skłodowska) named the element Polonium (symbol: Po) after her country of birth, Poland (Latin: Polonia), which was then part of the Russian Empire.
7rlE7 TIL, Vesta Stoudt, who had the idea for duct tape, couldnt get her bosses at a military ordnance plant to take her seriously. So she sent a letter to FDR who recommended it to the War Production Board where it was approved for use on ammo boxes.
ADwpn TIL of the Congressional Apportionment Amendment. Proposed in 1789 along with 11 other bills (10 of which would become the bill of rights), it remains to this day a pending amendment to the US constitution. If 31 more states ratify it, the size of the House would grow to 6,565 members.
dDB TIL that to make The Book of Mormon sound more biblical, Joseph Smith used the phrase “And it came to pass” 1,424 times. More than 20% of the verses in The Book of Mormon begin with it.
wo0RE TIL about The Socialist Fraternal Kiss, which was a greeting between communist leaders, involving an embrace and three alternating cheek kisses to symbolize solidarity. In exceptional cases of close personal or political bonds, the gesture involved kisses on the mouth instead of the cheeks.