› added 5 years ago

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TIL that the office of Vice Presidency was considered so insignificant that former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Daniel Webster turned it down twice from two different presidents. Ironically, both presidents (William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor) died while in office.

858G TIL the record for surviving the longest without food or liquids is held by someone who was forgotten by three policemen in a holding cell for 18 days
awBYJ TIL Geese Can Fly Over Mt. Everest. The geese have been directly recorded at heights of more than 7,000m (23,000 ft) and mountaineers have claimed they have seen the birds fly over Mount Everest.
699V7 TIL that a 2x distinguished service cross recipient, 10x silver star recipient, and 8x bronze star recipient who earned 8 Purple Hearts, named David Hackworth. Left home and joined the merchant marines in search of war when he was just 14.
yQE6M TIL gorillas are mostly peaceful giants, preferring acts of intimidation and diplomacy over full on violence even with rivals. There have only been a handful of human attacks, and an even smaller number of fatal attacks, mostly when they perceived humans as a threat and warnings were ignored.
b94Np TIL that the children of identical twins are genetically siblings rather than cousins. This is because they share 25% of their DNA. Full siblings share 50% of their DNA, half-siblings share 25%, and cousins share 12.5%. Thus, they are the genetic equivalent of half-siblings.