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TIL that Hunter S. Thompson, one of Richard Nixon’s biggest critics, was picked to ride with Nixon on a private drive to the airport during the 1968 election. The reason? Because Nixon felt like talking football, and Thompson was the only reporter who knew anything about the sport.

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gMD04 TIL the origin of the word person in law is persona in Latin which means an actor's mask, later it was applied to the part played by a man in life, then it meant the man himself. As if to say we can never know the man, but only the part he plays and the mask he wears.
Lk8rV TIL about the Bengal famine of 1942-43, in which the British allowed at least 1.5 million Bengalis to die of starvation. Only when Ian Stephens broke with British censorship and published pictures starving people and bodies did the British start to provide relief.
ZpZYp TIL the Australian language Ngan'gi (Ngan’gityemerri) has more than fifteen genders, including masculine human, feminine human, vegetables, drinks, canines, non-canine animals and two different genders for spears
P11ML TIL that in order to quickly identify the training of their mules in a herd, the US Army shaved bells into the tail. One bell meant the animal could pack, two meant it could pack & drive, and three meant it was also broke to ride.
aw0NM TIL Iran isn't the name of a government entity. It's simply how the Persian people say the name of their country in Farsi (Iran's Official language) "Iran" is Farsi for "Persia" (Greek form) and they simply wanted people to stop using the Greek form.