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TIL Byzantine princess Theophano, wife of Holy Roman emperor Otto was resented by the emperor's courtiers for her peculiar habits, including "luxurius tastes", like demanding to take a bath daily and using "a golden double prong to bring food to her mouth", instead of eating with her hands

X015r TIL of a plane who made a forced landing on a Greenland ice cap in Nov. 1942. In attempting their rescue, 6 more planes either also stranded or crashed and it would take the survivors 5 and a half months of sheltering on the glacier until they were all rescued.
VM10k TIL Jefferson’s first draft of the Declaration of Independence criticized King George III for enslaving Africans, and for over-ruling Virginia’s attempt to ban Slavery. In it, Jefferson called slavery a “cruel war against human nature.” The draft was struck down by the continental congress.
dD7k9 TIL about Bikeshedding: draining time & resources on insignificant details, so the core issues are ultimately neglected.
Z01Q TIL 1994 NBA MVP Hakeem Olajuwon released a $35 sneaker instead of endorsing shoes from Nike or Reebok because: “How can a poor working mother with three boys buy Nikes or Reeboks that cost $120?…She can’t. So kids steal these shoes from stores and from other kids. Sometimes they kill for them.”
jNnn TIL that when Alfred Hitchcock was a boy his father sent him to the police with a letter. When the Sherrif read the letter he put young Alfred in jail for ten minutes. When he released him he said" this is what happens to bad people.“ From then on Hitchcock was afraid of cops and would never drive.