› added 5 days ago

TIL John Wilkes Booth thought it was God's will that he assassinate Abraham Lincoln. He also believed slavery was God's greatest blessing to the nation, since he believed he viewed slavery the same way as the original framers of the constitution.

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YPvd TIL Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Sean Bean, Dominic Monaghan, and Viggo Mortensen all have the Elvish number 9 tattooed on their shoulders to symbolize being members of The Fellowship of the Ring.
v4BD TIL The Islamic world was a dominant player in the history of slavery. Muslims continued to trade in European slaves by raiding European coasts up to the 19th century.
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P1Xn TIL that during WWII, George de Hevesy dissolved two Nobel Prize medals with aqua regia to prevent the Nazis from stealing them. After the war, the gold was precipitated out of the acid, and the medals recast.
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