› added 5 years ago

87

TIL Alexandre Dumas was only one-fourth black, from his paternal grandmother. His other three grandparents were white.

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KYw19 TIL Dry cleaning isn't dry at all and is only called dry because it uses chemical solvents instead of water
mxbQy TIL that before the California grizzly bear was hunted to extinction in 1922, the largest of its kind found was in Valley Center, CA (near San Diego) and weighed 2,200 pounds.
pY8e TIL that the social security numbers of deceased individuals are public records. Richard Nixon’s was 567-68-0515.
b6gYZ TIL Chinese jade burial suits could take up to ten years to make and were ordered well in advance of death. Liu Sheng was known as a man who enjoyed good living and by the time he died in 113 BC his stomach had grown so large that another hundred plaques were added.
xVyL7 TIL Engineers figured out how to build a nuclear-powered plane without hurting the crew, but it failed cost/benefit analysis and was cancelled