› added 5 months ago

25

TIL that Sarah Knauss, who was the oldest American to ever live (born 1880), was about to see three centuries in her lifetime, but ultimately died on December 30th, 1999, at the age of 119.

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1agwD TIL that some scientists theorize that the origin of life is just the inevitable outcome of thermodynamics as a middle-step to increase overall entropy in the universe.
yapp TIL the fortune cookie was created by Japanese Americans and originally associated with Japanese food. In WWII, Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps and Chinese American manufacturers took control of the market, which is why today fortune cookies are associated with Chinese food.
lojQr TIL about transculturation, a process in which cultures living together adopt one another's practices (generally benefitting the culture in power). An example is Our Lady of Guadalupe, who first appeared at a location already sacred in Aztec times and gradually became the patron saint of Mexico.
E1MvW TIL many buildings in the Roman Forum were reasonably intact until the Renaissance. Several temples and arches were destroyed to provide building materials for St. Peter's Basilica and other projects.
kOMNd TIL Charles Darwin wrote: "The mule always appears to me a most surprising animal. That a hybrid should possess more reason, memory, obstinacy, social affection, powers of muscular endurance, and length of life, than either of its parents, seems to indicate that art has here outdone nature."