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TIL former US president Gerald Ford, his wife Betty Ford, and politician Henry Kissinger all made guest appearances as themselves in a 1983 episode of night-time soap Dynasty

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GxLQ TIL the Han Dynasty in China was aware of the existence of the Roman Empire, calling them Daqin or “great Qin”. In 97 CE the Chinese attempted to send an envoy but he turned back after reaching a large “western sea”, discouraged by the long and perilous journey it would take to reach Rome itself.
W7awo TIL Eugene Ely is credited with the first take off and landing on a naval vessel. In a Curtiss Model D, on Nov, 14 1910, He took off from a temporary deck on the cruiser, USS Birmingham CL-2. In the same aircraft, on Jan, 18 1911, He landed on the temp deck of the cruiser, USS Pennsylvania ACR-4.
rR0dy TIL about William Breckinridge, a captain of the Confederacy who later renounced the views that led him to fight for them and became a racial equality advocate. He also represented blacks in court as a lawyer and was even noted by a black lawyer that he had helped many blacks in their law careers.
moWM TIL that congressional approval for the first Gulf War was effected by the testimony of a Kuwaiti nurse who claimed to have witnessed Iraqi soldiers pulling babies out of incubators and throwing them on the floor to die. This never happened. The nurse was not a nurse. She was coached by a PR firm.
kOLrW TIL the scientific name for chocolate, theobroma cacao, means 'food of the gods' (Theo meaning deity and broma being archaic English for food)