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161

TIL that the very first phone number of the White House was “1”.

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via reddit.com

yVLbe TIL Princess Margriet of the Netherlands (whose family had fled the Nazi occupation during WWII) was born in an Ottawa hospital where it was temporarily declared extraterritorial by the Canadian government, so that the newborn would only inherit Dutch citizenship and not be a British subject.
l7GKr TIL in 1907, chemist Leo Baekeland accidentally overheated a mixture of chemicals while trying to find a substitute for shellac. Instead, he created Bakelite, the first fully synthetic plastic, which transformed manufacturing and paved the way for the modern plastics and polymer industry.
BgpGL TIL in 2019, a Florida woman sold a grilled cheese sandwich with an image of the Virgin Mary on it, and a bite missing, for $28,000
Oo8OL Nero, Stalin and Bin Laden were all fans, but what makes verse so appealing to these leaders? Benjamin Ramm explores the connection between ruthlessness and sentimentality.
9Yr4r TIL that the poet who coined the phrases, “Variety’s the very spice of life” and “God moves in a mysterious way” was institutionalized for insanity, depression, and suicide attempts, but was also a forerunner of the Abolitionist movement.