› added 2 months ago

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TIL that Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, an abolitionist, suffragist, surgeon, and the only female recipient of the Medal of Honor, was arrested for wearing men's clothes. She famously said: "I don’t wear men’s clothes, I wear my own clothes."

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via reddit.com

x69AB TIL In 1990, Muhammad Ali defied then-President George H.W. Bush's wishes by traveling to Iraq, where he secured the release of 15 American citizen hostages held in Iraqi prisons and brought them home. ( President Bush would eventually award him the Medal Of Freedom.)
RGY6 TIL Shakespeare’s name is spelt differently in all six of his known signatures, and none of them is spelt ‘William Shakespeare’.
VMnVp TIL that modern wolves are not closely related to the wolves that were first domesticated, implying that the direct ancestor of the domestic dog is extinct
788db TIL there were more than 250 Indigenous Australia languages in 1788 (including 800 dialects), of which 120+ survive today - 90% of these are considered 'endangered'
gMdJW TIL gas lines are reverse threaded so that they cannot be linked to other lines such as water, air, and ventilation and this is also done to keep kids from easily disconnecting them.