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TIL the word potassium is derived from the pre-industrial era method of obtaining the element: soaking plant ashes in a pot

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kOdjm TIL about Peter Oakley, known as Geriatric1927 on youtube, he was the most subscribed youtube account in 2006, in his channel he talked about his life experiences, such as growing up in the UK during WW2 and experiencing the British inter-war school system, he passed away in 2014 at 86 years old
E1ZZ0 TIL of the events of Black Monday, 1360. On the first night of the Siege of Chartres the English army, lead by Edward III were camped outside the city walls. In half an hour a freak hailstorm, accompanied by freezing rain, killed nearly 1,000 English soldiers and around 6,000 of their horses.
9Y9mX TIL in 1928, the founder of Juilliard overheard an audition of someone improvising on a Rachmaninoff classic. Appalled, he went to confront the blasphemer, but found an 8yo Black girl (Hazel Scott), whose hands were too small to hit all the right keys. She was deemed a prodigy & accepted immediately
oBvNR TIL that Cormac McCarthy writes all of his books on a 1963 Lettera typewriter. In 2009, he sold his typewriter sold at auction for $254,500. He spent $20 to buy an identical replacement.
raP1 TIL That the Indian Army tracked “Spy Drones” for 6 months until it turned out they were planets.