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TIL the word “slave” is derived from “Slav” since many Slavs were commonly enslaved in the early Middle Ages

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KXb6 TIL There Is An Organization That Preserves The Night Sky by Fighting Light Pollution, and Bill Nye is the Newest Ambassador!
Ooj4e TIL that there is s fungus called xylaria polymorpha which looks like dead man fingers protruding from the ground.
QJxZa TIL the first pro-gay film in the world was a 1919 German film called “Different from the Others”. It was created as a protest against German laws that criminalised homosexuality. The Nazis destroyed most prints of the film, and only one known copy has survived.
KomG TIL that Gene Roddenberry, hoping to get in touch with a WWII buddy named Kim Noonien Singh, named a villain on his show Khan Noonien Singh. Kim never noticed and the friends were never reunited.
xjgw TIL That Herbert Hoover and his wife learned Mandarin when living in China during the Boxer Rebellion, and would speak it in the White House to foil eavesdroppers.