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TIL The asterisk derives from the two thousand year old character called the asteriskos, ※, used when proofreading poetry to mark lines that were duplicated. The asterisk evolved in shape over time, but its meaning as a symbol used to correct defects remained.

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YdyA TIL Horace Wells, man who pioneered the use of laughing gas in dentistry, became so deranged after experimenting with chloroform that he poured sulfuric acid on 2 prostitutes. He committed suicide shortly after realizing what he had done.
ADKvB TIL that Brazil has the Biggest number of Italians, Japanese, Dutch, Portuguese, Sub-Saharan African and Lebanese (outside of those countries) people (descendants) in the world! Besides that, a Gigantic (in the millions) of German, Syrians, Polish, Spaniards, Ukrainians and Turkish people!
b9ZdE TIL The first Transatlantic cable was built in 1858 and reduced the communication time between North America and Europe from ten days to a matter of minutes.
N7OBM TIL there’s an exoplanet with rings 200 times larger than Saturn’s.
Ml0W TIL The Catholic Church considers the Theory of Evolution to be “virtually certain”, and believes that intelligent design “isn’t science even though it pretends to be.”