› added 13 years ago

140

TIL that the last words of Alex the Parrot to his caretaker was “You be good, see you tomorrow, I love you”.

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klLm TIL when Christmas first began, the celebrations included getting intoxicated, having sex, and singing naked in the streets (the origin of modern Christmas caroling).
ND6Q TIL that in 1987, Myanmar lowered its official literacy rate from 79% to 19% in order to qualify for least developed country status to receive UN debt relief.
GmPE TIL: President Ford was saved from assassination by a ‘closeted’ solider who the press outed as gay. Despite this being controversial in 1975, Ford publicly thanked the soldier who was estranged from his parents until Ford so publicly supported him.
QNQEk TIL about Edward Brooke, the first black person to be directly elected to the Senate when he was elected in 1966, serving two terms. A liberal Republican, Brooke co-wrote the 1968 Civil Rights Act and was the first Republican Senator to call for Nixon's resignation during Watergate.
Yn1W TIL, that Patrick Stewart was initially considered for the role of Data, and it took weeks of discussion with Robert Justman, Rick Berman, and the casting director to convince Roddenberry that Stewart was the one they had been looking for to sit in the Captain’s chair.