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TIL Charles Darwin wasn’t the first choice to go on the voyage in which he theorized the Theory of Evolution. He got the spot because other candidates turned down the captain’s invitation. Meanwhile, the captain just wanted a travel buddy because commanding a ship was very stressful and lonely.

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ggD7 TIL a stray cat named Humphrey was found and subsequently employed at 10 Downing street as a pest controller, eventually rising to the position of Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office. After being removed by Cherie Blair, his whereabouts remained unknown until a spokesman reported his death in 2006
OokY TIL In 1899, President McKinley was assured by the director of the US Patent Office that everything that can be invented has already been invented.
DQx6g TIL the African Union headquarters built in Ethiopia in 2012 were entirely funded by the Chinese government, who reportedly spied on the building for 5 years via hidden microphones and an IT system that sent files to Shanghai daily.
d8yBB TIL of the "Miracle" at Missionary Ridge during the US Civil War, when Union soldiers, after completing an ordered assault, went on seemingly of their own volition to storm up and drive back an "impregnable" entrenched Confederate defense on a high ridge.
gMPvW TIL the phrase “The First World War” was used as early as 1918, by a journalist who felt it would not be the last.