› added 11 months ago

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TIL about Christine Jorgensen, whose gender transition became the subject of a front-page news story in the 50s. She used her fame and platform to advocate for the rights of transgender people.

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NXEk6 TIL The first Postal Letterbox in the US began as a hollowed out tree on Long Island in the year 1787
xVygw TIL Charles Babbage lost 2 games of chess to the Mechanical Turk, an automaton with a chess player hidden inside that fooled people that a machine could play chess. He knew it was a hoax but it inspired his work on the Difference Engine and then the Analytical Engine, the world's first computer.
7rZaX TIL of the 21 US ships reported damaged or sunk in the Pearl Harbor attack, all but 3 were repaired and returned to service. One of those three was a pre-WWI dreadnought that the US used for target practice.
OoLB6 TIL in a study, 2 groups did the same workout and ate the same diet for 10 weeks, but 1 group had a protein shake before workouts, & the other after. Both groups lost the same fat mass, & both groups got stronger, with no significant difference between the pre and post protein shake groups.
ODGL TIL Amethyst gains the purple tint partially due to ionizing radiation