› added 9 months ago

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TIL William Waldorf Astor, America's richest man next to John D Rockefeller, had a feud with Aunt Lina that caused him to move to England. Linda insisted she was THE Mrs. Astor in New York society, not William's wife, and she was also mad that he built a the luxurious Waldorf Hotel near her mansion.

YpEAP TIL Jane Kuria and 2 of her 3 children were beaten to death (the son survived) in their home in Boston. They were a family from Kenya who were fleeing female genital mutilation and they were at the time embroiled in the appeals process of asylum. Noone knows who did it.
wLM77 TIL there is a Lieutenant Columbo statue in Budapest.
KO5VB TIL about the 'Portrait of Dr. Gachet', the last portrait painted by Vincent Van Gogh before his death, which was sold for the then record sum of 82.5 million USD in 1990. It is one of Van Gogh’s most important works, but has been withheld from the public by its anonymous owner for almost 30 years.
e0enb TIL that in 1846, Hunt invented the lockstitch sewing machine, and suggested to his daughter that she manufacture the device. When she pointed out to him that this machine would put many poor women in the garment industry out of work, hunt dropped the idea and never patented his invention.
Y7v4x Today I learned about a place in New Zealand called TaumatawhakatangihangaKōauauoTamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu -This place holds the record for having the longest name of a place in the world, with a whopping 85 characters.