› added 6 months ago

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TIL that about 80% of the animal and plant species in Madagascar are unique to the island and found nowhere else on Earth.

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LQkbv TIL a 2010 survey showed that there were no Italian-born people living in Manhattan's Little Italy, and only 5% of the neighborhood's residents identified as Italian-American.
6m8Z TIL that “Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band” reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in 1977 and is the biggest-selling instrumental single of all time.
OKx4 TIL “knock on wood” derived from Pagans touching, tapping or knocking on trees believing they were the homes of fairies and dryads who would wake and bless them with luck.
6eXX TIL that high-heeled shoes were originally worn by Persian cavalry soldiers, perhaps as early as the 9th century.
OG9BR TIL that Abraham Lincoln was so convinced that he was going to lose the election of 1864 that he asked Frederick Douglass to lead scouts into the South to free as many slaves as possible before the new president took office.