› added 4 years ago

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TIL about Sarah Rosetta Wakeman who was a woman that served in the Union Army During the American Civil War. Serving under a fake name, she was given the position of prison guard. During here time at the prison one of the female inmates there was doing time for the same crime she was committing.

KY0dG TIL that George Curzon who would become the Viceroy of India, was raised by a cruel governess Ellen Mary Paraman who made him wear a red petticoat with insults written on it. His attitude to women after this treatment, was problematic to say the least.
WkAd9 TIL of Justo Gallego, a Spanish man who's spend nearly the last 60 years building a cathedral by himself from materials he found in the area.
OKPL TIL that bacteria which has evolved to be able to survive in the highly toxic Berkeley Pit superfund site produces a chemical compound not found anywhere else with anticancer potential.
6EWY7 TIL that "Xmas" is not only not "taking the Christ out of Christmas" but the term Xmas Dates back to the Original writing of the New Testament, which called Christ "Χριστός" which was then used in the context of Christmas around 1100 AD as the term Xmas, with "X" being shorthand for Christ.
9o9Q TIL of “Gish Gallop”, a fallacious debate tactic of drowning your opponent in a flood of individually-weak arguments, that the opponent cannot possibly answer every falsehood in real time. It was named after “Duane Gish”, a prominent member of the creationist movement.