› added 12 years ago

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TIL Bill Gates was recruited to write the class scheduling software for his high school. He used that power to place himself in classes with more female students.

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woxM7 TIL that on December 26th, 1862, Abraham Lincoln ordered the hanging of 38 Dakota men in Mankato, Minnesota
JemB TIL That on an English political program the presenter’s Golden Retriever sometimes wanders around the set.
oBew8 TIL that when George Washington died in 1799, the British Royal Navy was ordered to lower their flags to half mast. The London Morning Chronicle opined that ‘The whole range of history does not present to our view a character upon which we can dwell with such entire and unmixed admiration’.
nWlOr TIL that James Watt, inventor of the steam engine, also made musical instruments. He owned a fake name stamp for a famous flute maker, indicating he passed off cheap flutes as much more valuable.
8eRVP TIL of the 'Fry and Turnbull effect' on prostate cancer in the UK. In 2008 news presenter Bill Turnbull and broadcaster Stephen Fry both had a prostate cancer diagnosis and urged other men to come forward for help. It caused a 36% increase in patients receiving treatment the following year.