› added 9 years ago

101

TIL the henchman Bond kills with a statue in You Only Live Twice is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s maternal grandfather.

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vPX0D TIL That the transition of the Ming to Qing dynasty in China took 65 years and cost approximately 25 million lives.
dbJr TIL of Ossip Bernstein, a famous chess grandmaster, who was sentenced to death by the Bolsheviks in 1918. While he was facing the firing squad, a russian officer that heard his name offered him the chance to prove his identity in a game of chess. He beat the officer and was released.
XEpMP TIL in 2016, Alex Trebek, the host of "Jeopardy!", donated a total of $7.5 million to his Alma mater, University of Ottawa, to fund a Forum for Dialogue and a Speaker Series. The goal is to expose students to different world views through discussions and panels by speakers from around the world.
xr8k TIL that when Martha Washington recalled the two saddest days of her life the first was December 14, 1799 when her husband died. The second was in January 1801 when Thomas Jefferson visited Mt Vernon. “Next to the loss of her husband” Jefferson’s visit was the “most painful occurrence of her life.”
R7Xvj TIL about Pluto Lamps that were public street gas lamps in the 1890's that were coin operated serving hot water and cups of cocoa, tea, beef broth and coffee with milk and sugar options.