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TIL in the 1900s the Austerlitz family in Omaha, Lutheran German emigrants, moved to New York City in hopes of finding fortune through their children's vaudeville talents. The son wore a top hat and studied tango, waltz, and other ballroom dances. He would become Fred Astaire.

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VBM44 TIL that the reason the middle finger is offensive is it was used as an explicit reference to the male genitalia. Greek playwright Aristophanes puns in his comedy The Clouds about dactylic (finger) rhythm, with a character gesturing first with his middle finger and subsequently with his crotch.
e0WJE TIL crickets have the largest testes in the world compared to body ratio - at 14% of their weight - b/c they have a LOT of sex. Highly promiscuous female Mormon crickets also FIGHT TO EAT SPERM (spermatophore). The spermatophore can be 27% of the male's body weight.
rN4Qx TIL that the first use of an external defibrillator was on a 14-year-old boy in 1947. These early defibrillators used alternating current that was transformed from 110–240 volts available in the line, up to between 300 and 1000 volts, to the exposed heart by way of "paddle" type electrodes.
b9NJ7 TIL Tetris leads to fewer intrusive memories when applied several days after a traumatic event
69pW8 TIL that Sam Houston is the only person to have served as the governor of 2 U.S. states, with him serving as the 6th governor of Tennessee from 1827-1829, and as the 7th governor of Texas from 1859-1861.