› added 7 years ago

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TIL That Anita Hemmings was the first African-American female to graduate from Vassar College. She did this by pretending to be spanish, however she was discovered the day before graduation. She still received her diploma.

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JW4m TIL There is a fictitious member of the German parliament. He has his own official bio page, and even a bridge named after him. The hoax has been going since the 1970s
Ypgmr TIL: A blind mechanical engineer named Ralph Teetor invented cruise control in 1945 after riding with his lawyer, who had a nasty habit of speeding up and slowing down too frequently. It was originally called "Speedostat".
Da0J TIL Dan Burros a member of the American Nazi Party and later of the KKK committed suicide after he discovered his Jewish background was made public in a New York Times Article
w4EP TIL in Hamburg, Germany, there is a Food Additives Museum dedicated to the emulsifiers, stabilizers, dyes, thickeners, preservatives, and flavorings in our everyday foods. The exhibits explains the history and current landscape of food additives in an informational rather than political way.
QJRYd TIL the first official quarantine was in Dubrovnik, Croatia in 1377 against the bubonic plague. Anyone entering the city had to first isolate for 40 (in latin, quaranta) days on a nearby island.