› added 5 years ago

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TIL that the fourth funnel on the Titanic was fake. It was for appearances only: it made the ship look bigger. It was not connected to the charcoal ovens, but it was connected to the first-class smoking room, making it a sort of oversized kitchen hood.

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ZpoYY TIL despite their small size, Kiwis produce one of the largest eggs of any bird and can be up to 20% of their body weight. That's comparable to a 120 lb woman giving birth to a 24 lb baby.
1amkO TIL that, in one apocryphal story of Voltaire's death at age 83, a Catholic priest counseled him to renounce Satan. He replied, "This is no time to make new enemies."
gpnL TIL That Wild Bill Hickok once escaped being shot by waving his hand at onlookers behind a mounted gunman and yelling, “Don’t shoot him in the back; he is drunk.” The gunman wheeled his horse around, and before he realized he had been fooled, Hickok shot him through the temple.
b6J6a TIL Ezekiel Hart was twice elected to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada but was denied his seat on both occasions for being Jewish. Opponents to Hart wrote a poem declaring a Jew in the Assembly as more foolish than Caligula's appointing his horse a Roman consul.
eM4n TIL in May 1991, Freddie Mercury started recording vocals for “Mother Love”, but upon reaching the last verse, he told his band that he had to “have a rest” and that he would return to finish it. He didn’t end up making it to the studio, eventually succumbing to AIDS. Brian May sang the final verse.