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TIL that the Babylonians actually discovered Trigonometry about 1,500 years before the Greeks. Not only were their tables more accurate because of their base-60 numerical system (which made thirds more accurate), but their approach using ratios is something relatively novel to us, today.

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loew7 TIL At the end of WW1 in 1918, when revolutionaries toppled the monarchy all across Germany, King Friedrich August III of Saxony was asked by phone if he would like to abdicate willingly. He just replied "Oh, well, I suppose I'd better" and thus Saxony became a republic.
JAvv TIL of le Chevalier d'Eon, a French diplomat that lived alternatively as male or female. There was a betting pool over his real gender (male) that closed only after his autopsy.
R7kal TIL Days before his death Edgar Allan Poe was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore and how he came to be like this has remained a mystery. It’s been suggested he may have been a victim of “cooping” in which unwilling participants are drugged and forced to vote for a particular candidate..
DQ9ED TIL on the May 9, 1969, episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Rogers asked Officer Clemmons, a black policeman played by François Clemmons, if he'd like to cool his feet with Rogers in a child's pool. Clemmons accepted after Rogers offered to share his towel too. Most pools were still segregated.
8eyPZ TIL during World War I, due to concerns the American public would reject a product with a German name, American sauerkraut (fermented cabbage) makers relabeled their product as "liberty cabbage" for the duration of the war.