› added 11 years ago

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TIL Noah Webster, the founder of Merriam-Webster, learned 26 languages in order to evaluate the etymology of words

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YOXx TIL Michael Faraday was one of the most influential scientists in history despite receiving little formal education. By age 40 he had invented the electric motor, the generator and the transformer. He was also the first person to show that an electromagnetic force can manipulate light.
ONNX TIL Abraham Lincoln’s son Robert was present or near for the Assassinations of three America presidents (his father, Garfield and McKinley). He once refused a presidential invitation saying “I’m not going… because there is a certain fatality about presidential functions when I am present”
Rjm6 TIL In 2011, a Supreme Court case decided that prisoners in a for-profit prison couldn’t sue anybody if their right from cruel and unusual punishment was violated, as it’s a corporation doing the cruel and unusual punishing, not the government.
WgKL TIL: In 2008, 11 out of every million babies born in America were named Bacon
YAEr TIL In the early 90s, shortly after Crystal Pepsi was released, Coca-Cola developed a clear version of their Tab cola. However, they intentionally developed it to fail so as to taint the reputation of and take down Crystal Pepsi in an act of kamikaze.