› added 9 months ago

31

TIL Abraham Lincoln was the only president who was also a licensed bartender.

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GPjj TIL The Treaty of Ghent of 1814 once contained a clause that if Britain and Spain were to go to war, the U.S. would be given the rights to “protect” occupy Canada for a period up to 20 years, after which the U.S. could buy it for 50 million if 2/3rd of Canadians voted to stay part of the U.S..
xVQQ7 TIL that the rarest stamp in the world (the 1856 British Guiana 1c magenta) - of which only one specimen exists - has broken the world record stamp price each of the last four times it has been sold. It was sold for 6s, £120, £150, $36,000, $40,000, $280,000, $935,000, and most recently $9,480,000
JV94 TIL a disgruntled employee attempted to hijack and crash a FedEx flight using hammers and a speargun. Despite their traumatic head injuries, one pilot flew the plane upside down while the other grappled with the assailant until he was subdued. Both pilots lived and managed to land the plane safely
o4wA TIL We see the colors that we do because that is just about the only spectrum of light that passes through water, the area where eyes first evolved. There hasn’t been any evolutionary reason on land to see any broader spectrum.
1aJKP TIL about George Ray Tweed, one of six men to refuse to surrender to the Japanese on Guam in 1941. 5 were captured & beheaded. He avoided capture for two years and seven months when the USA recaptured the island.