› added 7 years ago

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TIL that president Andrew Johnson never attended school in his life, and wasn't literate until his 16 year old wife began tutoring him.

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lo1pK TIL a gannet named Nigel, was dubbed "the loneliest bird in the world" due to the absence of any other birds of his species on his island. Conservationists built fake concrete birds to attract more birds but Nigel ended up falling in love with one the decoys.
x6LYD TIL about Qian Xuesen, an early scientist at Jet Propulsion Lab who was later accused of being a communist and was deported to China where he helped start that country's satellite and rocket industries, a move a US Secretary of Navy later said was "the stupidest thing this country ever did"
rW0x TIL Paul Revere never actually said “The British are coming!”. The operation was meant to be conducted as discreet as possible and colonial Americans at the time still considered themselves British.
R5jM4 TIL Earth's oldest land ecosystem was spotted in South African rock cores
yVO5J TIL The Avalanches debut album, Since I left You, featuring the song Frontier Psychiatrist, is estimated to include more than 3,500 vinyl samples