› added 6 years ago

84

TIL that Benjamin Franklin's illegitimate son, William Franklin (1730 - 1813), was a staunch Loyalist during the American Revolution and even organized British military units to fight in the war. After the war, he and Benjamin Franklin never reconciled.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

LkD6p TIL the current chess grandmaster, Magnus Carlsen, intentionally plays non-book "inaccuracies" during opening (moves he knows aren't the best) to force the game into a non-book position ASAP so his opponents will have to think for themselves instead of going by memorised opening theory
EgPXP Today I learned George Lucas only directed one of three of the original Star Wars trilogy.
rRDVx TIL about hypertumors, a type of tumor that forms on top of an existing tumor and kills it. This happens more on larger animals, which may explain why blue whales don't die of cancer often.
P6VG TIL Timothy the tortoise served as a mascot on HMS Queen during the bombardment of Sevastopol in 1854. She was, until her death in 2004, the last surviving witness to the Crimean War.
DQByg TIL about Robert Dale Owen, a utopian socialist, feminist, and radical secularist who moved to the USA in 1825 and became an influential member of the Democratic Party. He was also highly influential in Indiana politics