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TIL that showman P.T. Barnum got his start by purchasing an enslaved woman named Joice Heth. She was in her 70’s but he claimed she was 161 years old and had been the nanny of George Washington. He exhibited her until her death, and then allowed the public to view her autopsy for 50 cents each

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8YJ8 TIL of Christian Heinreich Heineken, a child prodigy who by at the age of one, read the Pentateuch, and by the age of four wrote the “History of Denmark” and recited it when visiting the King of Denmark later the same year.
wrKJ TIL that a 2014 study found that mothers living within 10 miles of a natural gas fracking site were 30% more likely to have babies with congenital heart defects than those without.
6EEMl TIL of Yakhchāls - Ancient freezers used to make and store ice in the deserts of Iran.
e1Z4 TIL The KKK tried to to set up a kerosene-soaked cross at Spring Hill College due to its supporting the civil rights movement. When the students were alerted they chased the Klansmen away with whatever items they could use as weapons like golf clubs, tennis rackets, bricks, and softball bats.
epB16 TIL of Porphyrios, a large whale that wreaked havok on Roman ships outside of Constantinople for 50 years. Emperor Justinian the Great made it an important matter to capture it, though he could not come up with a way to.