› added 11 years ago

170

TIL cats domesticated themselves.

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Y7ZWG TIL that Alexei Nikolaevich, son of the last Russian tsar and heir to the throne, had a severe case of hemophilia inherited from his mother, which in turn she had acquired through the line of her maternal grandmother Victoria of the United Kingdom.
1aYW8 TIL that despite hosting the 1976 Olympics and competing in it, the nation of Canada failed to earn any gold medal.
91QM TIL that the Romans substituted real criminals into plays for punishment, so if a character died in the play’s story or plot, a real criminal would die on stage.
MepV8 TIL that the Egyptians' system of taxation was based on usable land area, and you could claim a reduction in tax based on the surface area that dipped underwater when the Nile flooded.
d8LPj TIL that Ulysses S. Grant went on a post-presidency world tour from 1877-79. He was received quite well, often greeting cheering crowds, being offered gifts, and meeting various heads-of-state. He even acted as an unofficial diplomat in some cases, such as a land dispute between China and Japan.