› added 13 years ago

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TIL the term “piss poor” originally referred to families who literally had to sell their own urine to make money.

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p8j8b TIL When President Cleveland lost the reelection to Harrison, he thought he was done with government. He and his wife lived in a hotel while searching for a house and the ex-president considered various lucrative job offers in the private sector, eventually accepting a law firm job
JYAdV TIL the first photograph of DNA was taken as part of research by a woman, Rosalind Franklin. Unknown to her, and without her permission, it was shown to James Watson, who then with Francis Crick used what they learned from it to develop the double helix model for DNA, winning them the Nobel Prize.
vPGJj TIL umarell are “men of retirement age who spend their time watching construction sites, especially roadworks – stereotypically with hands clasped behind their back”
7MYP TIL Seals have been known to have sex with penguins
0ymp TIL After the sinking of the RMS Titanic (1500 lives claimed), a federal law was passed requiring a complete set of lifeboats. The added weight of the new lifeboats caused an already top heavy SS Eastman to rollover killing 844 people while still docked in the Chicago River.