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TIL in 2011, it was discovered that a 25-year-old German woman who works for an online furniture company is a direct descendant of Queen Victoria and could have been Queen of England if it wasn't for a technicality that has now been fixed.

Read more telegraph.co.uk

via reddit.com

woKRE TIL: Stevie Wonder was about to play at Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday concert when his synclavier hard disc went missing. He refused to play, so unknown Tracy Chapman hurried on stage to perform for a 2nd time that day. She sold 2 million albums and Fast Car went Top 10 worldwide after the concert.
XEZlD TIL that Marcus Garvey died after reading his own obituary in a newspaper. He’d suffered stroke in January 1940, and then read his own obituary in the Chicago defender; it described him as "broke, alone and unpopular". Apparently as a result, he had a second stroke and died.
pYvOe TIL “Just Desserts” is a pun. The original phrase, “Just Deserts”, describes not desert climates but “moral deserts”—or, things which one morally deserves. “Desert” and “Deserve” share an old French root, but the word “desert” is very rarely used in this form in modern day.
loebV TIL an African grey parrot named "Nigel," who spoke with a British accent, went missing from his California home. When he was returned 4 yrs later via his microchip to his British-American owner, Nigel was able to speak Spanish & sing bars from the theme of "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly."
VMPG4 TIL the material asbestos has been used by humans for over 4,500 years. In antiquity, a Sassanian king amazed his guests when he cleaned his asbestos napkin by throwing it into a fire.