› added 11 years ago

79

TIL that the great-grandfather of Russian author Alexander Pushkin, was black. An African slave bought for Peter the Great, he became a major-general, military engineer, governor of Reval and a nobleman

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E1aRP TIL that in correspondence chess there is a concept known as the "Dead Man's Defense", where a player spends as much time as possible playing out a lost position in hopes that the opposing player simply dies or loses interest, thereby winning the game.
9drQ TIL Abraham Lincoln was reported to be “fond of dumb animals, especially cats.”
GYXJG TIL that before Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide, he helped free a Colorado woman who was convicted of murder despite her being handcuffed in the back of a police car at the time. She would have served a life sentence without parole and was freed just one month after his death.
a8peZ TIL Don Featherstone, creator of the plastic pink flamingo, died of Lewy Body Dementia. The same disease that took Robin Williams.
4XMxg TIL There are more possible iterations of a game of chess than there are atoms in the known universe.