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TIL of Clayton "Peg Leg" Bates: born in South Carolina the black son of a sharecropper in 1907, he danced on the street for coins as a child, lost his leg at 12, taught himself to tap-dance afterwards, was competing in talent shows by 15, on Broadway by 20 and performing for royalty by 30.

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opro TIL some shots of the parade scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off were secretly filmed during an actual parade. The production’s float was inserted into the parade “unbeknownst to anybody, all the people on the reviewing stand. Nobody knew what it was, including the governor”
ddNj TIL of Henry Moseley, who rearranged the Periodic Table based on atomic mass and died aged only 27 in WW1. Isaac Asimov said of his death, ‘in view of what he might still have accomplished … his death might well have been the most costly single death of the War to mankind generally’.
d8mGE TIL the word "algorithm" has its roots in the name of the Persian mathematician of al-Khwarizmi. The word "algebra" is derived from the Latinization of "al-jabr", part of the title of his most famous book. He also oversaw the translation of major Greek and Indian mathematical and astronomical texts.
Y7R9W TIL a server received a lottery ticket as a tip, winning $10 Million. Subsequently, the man who gave her the ticket and even her coworkers sued for a portion. Following this, her ex-husband kidnapped her, leading to her shooting him. Her legal saga continued with a court battle against the IRS.
6Eb4l TIL 'Democracy sausage' is the Australian term for sausage sandwiches sold at polling booths. In 1989 the liberal party leader was accused of bribing voters with democracy sausages after wearing a BBQ hat and apron and "being involved in the dissemination of sausages" at an election campaign.