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TIL the Grim Reaper was most commonly depicted carrying a scythe as imagery to death was an extension of an agrarian society in which harvesting, done in the fall, represented the death of another year.

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wLv4M TIL it is thought that the genes for light skin appeared in Anatolia (the westernmost protrusion of Asia) by about 8,500 years ago, & only became widespread in Europe by about 5,000 years ago.
wLRw6 TIL that a Serbian high-school biology textbook used a picture of Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter in "Raising Arizona" on the cover from 1993 to 2001.
oVGo TIL of the ‘Japanese Smoking Paradox’ where Japanese smokers smoke more than US/European males but have much lower lung cancer rates and nobody is entirely sure why.
47KR TIL that senator Daniel Webster was offered the office of Vice President by both William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor, he did not accept either as he thought the position would lead nowhere, choosing instead to make three failed Presidential campaigns. Both Taylor and Harrison died in office.
gr9YX TIL the mottos on Great Britain’s Coat of arms are in French: “Dieu et mon droit” (God and my right) and “Honi soit qui mal y pense” (Shamed be the one who thinks ill of it)