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TIL The assassination of Abraham Lincoln was part of a wider conspiracy that also involved the assassination of Secretary of State William H. Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson. Seward was stabbed in his home but survived, while Johnson’s assassin lost his nerve and never made the attempt.

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657Y TIL when Stephen Hawking gave a lecture in Japan he was asked not to mention the possible re-collapse of the universe, billions of years into the future, for fears of the effects on the stock exchange
4krp5 TIL that the old Hungarian alphabet was comprised of runes!
0w9n1 TIL some potato chips are green because a section of a potato can break through the ground and start growing chloroplasts. Most of the time these green potatoes are separated from production due to solanine, a natural poison that can be produced from a green potato.
0dXR1 TIL At a length of 130m and able to carry more than 7000 men (4000 being rowers) the Tessarakonteres was the largest ship built in antiquity. Built by order of Ptolemy IV Philopator in the 3rd century BCE she required an early dry dock to construct. Ultimately her great size made her impractical.
ZWLa TIL that a parrot named “Alex” was the very first (and only) non-human animal to ask an existential question. He asked what color he was, and learned that he was gray.