› added 4 years ago

295

TIL about Superfecundation and Superfetation. Rare but possible in humans, in Superfecundation the mother produces several eggs at the same time, they are fertilized by different fathers, and she has twins. Superfetation is when a woman ovulates while pregnant and has two pregnancies at once.

4XevR TIL Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) was challenged to a duel against James Laird. Clemens' marksmanship was so dreadful that his friend, Steve Gillis, shot off the head of a small bird before Laird arrived and told him that Clemens had shot it down. Thus, Laird retreated in fear and canceled the match.
1Z7D TIL: There are 5 authentic versions of the Gettysburg Address, and we don’t know for sure which one Lincoln actually delivered at Gettysburg.
1aY8O TIL that Saparmurat Niyazov, the former President of Turkmenistan made a number of bizarre Decrees and Laws, including abolishing the native language word for bread and replacing it with his mother's name, banning opera & ballet and banishing dogs from the capital city because of their odor.
worb8 TIL the political terms "left" and "right" first appeared during the French Revolution of 1789 when members of the National Assembly divided into conservative supporters of the old regime to the assembly president's right and the more liberal supporters of the revolution to his left
rND8x TIL Marcus Aurelius' decision to waive the imperial tax on the sale of gladiators was so popular that the transcript of the entire senate debate on the law was carved in stone across the empire, an expensive and thus unique undertaking. The tax break was estimated at 30-20 million sesterces a year