› added 2 years ago

65

TIL that when Abraham Lincoln took off his Stovepipe Hat to give his first Inaugural Address, he awkwardly looked around for a place to put it. The losing Presidential Candidate, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, stepped forward, said “Permit me,” and took the hat to hold on his knee during the address.

X4d8 TIL you cannot get HIV from a mosquito or any other insect. Mosquitoes don’t inject the blood from their last meal when they bite. Also, they don’t hop from host to host. After a meal, they go rest and digest. And HIV is destroyed by the insect’s stomach.
vN0x TIL That for years the German military had a parge single shot flamethrower pistol called the “Handflammpatrone”. It was capable of firing a flaming grenade 90 meters, laying a 15 meter wide flame over a 50 meter long area along the way.
77AO TIL A Mars mission would expose astronauts to radiation levels equivalent to receiving a whole-body CT scan every five or six days and increase their risk of cancer by 5.5%; NASA scientists consider this the “elephant in the room” with regard to any deep space missions
x075 TIL Rosacea, a skin disease found mainly in those of Northern European descent and also known as The Curse of the Celts, is actually an evolutionary adaptation acquired by ancestral Celtic people to fend off bacteria during seasonal periods of low ultraviolet levels.
Ooa8R TIL The lines on Solo Cups were NOT intended to indicate proper sizes for popular alcoholic drinks (liquor, wine, and beer) but instead just a coincidence.