› added 9 years ago

73

TIL that Thomas Jefferson proposed in 1784 to end slavery in all the territories, but his bill lost in Congress by one vote.

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10AW TIL there is a 90-mile island in Alaska that is home to more than 1600 bears, outnumbering the human residents 3 to 1. It is sometimes called “The Fortress of the Bears.”
XEbyR TIL that in 2004, John Hutcherson drove home drunk with a friend hanging out the window. He sideswiped a telephone-pole support wire, decapitating his friend. He continued home, parked in the driveway and went to bed. A neighbor found the headless body the next morning.
PYlMw TIL Al-Khwarizmi from Baghdad around A.D. 800 worked on a value of pi calculated to four decimal digits: 3.1416. The term 'algorithm' derives from his name, and his text Kitab al-Jabr wal-Muqabala gives us the word 'algebra' (from al-Jabr, which means 'completion' or 'restoration')
xVyZk TIL George Washington Carver was accepted to Highland Presbyterian College (Kansas) in 1880. But upon arrival to begin studies and the school realizing they'd accidentally accepted an African American they revoked his acceptance.
vPPAK TIL Liberia (West Africa) was founded in 1822 with the aim of establishing a self-sufficient colony for emancipated American slaves. It is Africa's first and oldest modern republic. Its capital city Monrovia was named after US Pres James Monroe, a prominent supporter of the founding of Liberia.