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TIL Alexander Hamilton thought the electoral college would ensure that “the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.”

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AD6vn TIL In 1608, English writer Thomas Coryat wrote a book detailing his five months’ travel through Europe in which he described, among other things, use of the table fork as an eating utensil. He also introduced “umbrella” into English after noticing Italians shielding themselves from the sun.
kO51d TIL that Saint Valentine is not only the patron saint of love, but also of beekeeping. This puts a different perspective of the common Valentine's Day phrase "Bee Mine".
VMJNm TIL The oldest continuously occupied residence in California is the Rios Adobe in San Juan Capistrano, built in 1794 for Feliciano Rios, a soldier at Mission San Juan Capistrano. The current owner 225 years later is Stephen Rios, an ex-Marine raising the 10th generation in the adobe.
6EN8Q TIL that the 20th President of the US, James A. Garfield, contributed an original proof of the Pythagorean Theorem before he became president. He came up with it during a discussion with other members of Congress, and it was published in the New England Journal of Education.
bNL0 TIL I learned the 27th Amendment, proposed in 1789, took over 200 years to be ratified; it was all but forgotten until a law student discovered it in 1982 and campaigned for its ratification.