› added 7 years ago

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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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V6KQ TIL that the word “soccer” was first used in England before the Americans adopted it.
16Vr7 TIL that Dolphins sleep with one eye open
mx1ky TIL black people actually ARE much less likely to tip.
Axox TIL after describing female journalists as “buck-and-a-half hookers”, Frank Sinatra was under siege for 3 days in a Sydney hotel and stranded because airport union staff refused him service, declaring “If you don’t apologise, you won’t be allowed to leave Australia unless you can walk on water.”
0nN5 TIL of the state Buddhist monks call “Tukdam” which happens when a monk dies during deep meditation and his body stays uncannily preserved in meditative posture for hundreds of years.