› added 6 years ago

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TIL that during a negotiation with Portuagal in 1617, future Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba was not offered a chair, instead being offered a mat. This was an attempt to disrespect her, so she ordered her servant to get on the ground and then sat on her back during the negotiations.

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R5xJl TIL William Waldorf Astor, America's richest man next to John D Rockefeller, had a feud with Aunt Lina that caused him to move to England. Linda insisted she was THE Mrs. Astor in New York society, not William's wife, and she was also mad that he built a the luxurious Waldorf Hotel near her mansion.
xVe77 TIL it took Ryan Reynolds 11 yrs to get his vision of "Deadpool" made. The project overcame the failing of "X-Men:Origins" and persevered to become the highest grossing R-rated film of all time.
gME69 Today I learned that in 2014 the US finished it’s largest dam removal in history on the Elwha river in Washington state. The once dammed reservoir of over 100 years, now flows freely and is once again booming with salmon, birds, moose, and even new beaches being formed by sediment!
oa4Y TIL that because a country is limited to four female competitors across seven weight classes at the Olympics, the Chinese qualification competition is more competitive than the Olympics itself
Yp84A TIL Marilyn Manson's 2015 album was printed on the same discs used for PlayStation 1 videogames. The famous black discs were used for their high contrast against a white thermal paint that would appear when heated by a disc reader, changing the image on the disc when played.