› added 6 years ago

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TIL of Thomas Francis Meagher, born 1823. He was an Irish nationalist, got exiled to Tasmania, escaped to New York, visited Costa Rica, fought in the Civil War, became governor of Montana, and died when he fell off a boat at age 43.

Wk9yY TIL Research shows that cats that are provided with empty boxes are more interactive, friendly and comfortable with the people around them as compared to those cats that do not have a box to snuggle in. So, it can be said that cats derive comfort and security from boxes.
dJZ9 TIL after escaping from slavery, an illiterate Harriet Tubman was spotted by a former master on a train. She decided to pick up a nearby newspaper and pretended to read it. The master ignored the black woman reading because he knew Tubman couldn’t read.
7MKO TIL Daniel Tammet, an autistic savant who speaks 10 languages and has the rare capability to explain how his brain works, says numbers have shape, color, and texture. 289 is ugly, 333 attractive, and pi is beautiful.
OGMa1 TIL that the founders of video game maker "Acclaim" named their company so it would be listed alphabetically before their former employer "Activision" and before "Accolade" another company founded by ex-Activison employees. Activison itself was founded by ex-Atari employees based on the same logic.
WkpWB TIL that Hanns Scharff, German Luftwaffe's "master interrogator," instead of physical torture on POWs used techniques like nature walks, going out for a pleasant lunch, and swimming where the subject would reveal information on their own. He helped shape US interrogation techniques after the war.