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Til that Beethoven has "curious tempo selections" in his works that musicians today generally adapt the tempo from what was written. Historians believe in 1815, a deafening Beethoven was gifted an inaccurate early metronome by J. Mälzel that is likley to have been sabotaged/broken in a fit of rage.

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E1d6d TIL the X in Xmas literally means "Christ." In Greek, the word Christos (Christ) begins with the letter "X," or chi. Early in the early fourth century, Constantine the Great popularized the shorthand for Christ. Most scholars agree the first appearance of Xmas dates to an Anglo-Saxon scribe in 1021.
7rNKb TIL Diabetes increases the risk for foot ulcers and amputation. People with diabetes that have nerve damage in their feet and toes often don't notice minor cuts, sores, or blisters in these areas
b9K8j TIL: Sculptor Selma Burke, a black woman, never received credit for her portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which was later adapted and featured on the US dime. It is widely accepted that the white John R. Sinnock's obverse design on the Roosevelt dime was adapted from Burke's work.
WkmpA TIL Empress Catherine I of Russia was a peasant girl captured as a war prize then transferred around until becoming a concubine to Peter the Great. She quickly knew how to best please him, so he married her, and later Romanovs are her descendants. After Peter's death she reigned in her own name.
kvk4 TIL That “The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick” is listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the hardest tongue twister in the world.