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TIL when Abraham Lincoln’s brother-in-law Confederate General Benjamin Helm was killed in battle in 1863, Lincoln and his wife went into private mourning at the White House to avoid criticism. The widowed Emilie Todd Helm was granted safe passage to the White House.

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yQbaJ TIL Penguin Diagrams used in quantum field theory to illustrate the behavior of subatomic particles were so named because physicist John Ellis lost a bar bet playing darts and had to use the word "penguin" in his next published paper. The so-called diagrams look like the outline of a penguin.
E19Nw TIL that during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in the 40s, an American named Claire Phillips ran Manila's hottest nightclub which was a front for a spy ring that funneled information from drunk Japanese officers to guerilla groups outside the city.
d8QNQ TIL There was a Russian surgeon that was in Antarctica when he became very ill. He ended needing his appendix removed, but he was the only Doctor on the team. So he cut it out himself.
vP0mD TIL about Dokos, the oldest known shipwreck ever discovered. Dated to ~2700-2200 BCE, it was found in the Aegean Sea, near the island of Dokos, Greece. It predates other famous ancient wrecks by thousands of years, providing crucial isights into early maritime trade and navigation.
wLvrE TIL Johnny cash got the tempo to "I Walk the Line" from his heartbeat when he wrote the song. His heart beat was pretty fast that day, he felt his pulse and put the music on beat with it.