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TIL that in his will, George Washington left directions to emancipate all of the enslaved people that he owned after the death of Martha Washington. On January 1, 1801, all of the enslaved people he owned were freed. The Emancipation Proclamation was put into act on January 1, 1863, 62 years later.

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MeL7A TIL that George Washington is the highest ranking officer in the US army. He was promoted to the rank of General of the Armies on January 19, 1976, and he has steadfastly held onto power, even though he's been dead for 220 years. This makes the US army the world's only necrocracy.
ANgn4 TIL Marine Electric sank in 1983 and 31 of its crew died but 3 survived for 90 minutes in frigid water. The wreck led to a number of reforms such as more stringent coast guard inspections of ships, mandatory survival suits for north atlantic runs and the famous US coast guard rescue swimmer program
PYbKJ Today I learned that Monarch butterfly caterpillars live off of Milkweed, which is toxic and should kill them. They store it in their bodies and while becoming a butterfly the toxic is transferred to their wings as a defense mechanism
XEx8X TIL long term radiation damages the cameras on the ISS. Also, astronauts occasionally see flashes of light as heavy ions or charged particles crash through their skull and fire off photo receptor cells in their eyes despite being closed.
oRPQR TIL that an extensive research of dropping wallets was done to study honesty. 279 top economists agreed that a wallet with more money would be less likely to be returned but the actual results turned out to be opposite across countries and culture.