› added 11 years ago

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TIL that until 1994, a pencil was inserted into a person’s hair to help determine a South African’s racial identity. If the pencil fell out easily, the person was considered white.

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JVKl TIL: On Nixon’s Inauguration Day, LBJ pulled out a cigarette—his first since his heart attack. One of his daughters pulled it out of his mouth saying “Daddy, what are you doing? You’re going to kill yourself.” He replied, “I’ve now raised you girls. I’ve now been President. Now it’s my time!”.
9AXB TIL that while Serbs speak a Slavic language, they have more Celtic DNA than Slavic DNA, making them genetically closer to Irish or English people than Russians or Croatians.
OoPlR TIL President Roosevelt carried on an affair with the Crown Princess of Norway during World War 2
KYoWE TIL: That despite intense behind the scenes actions, Pope Pius XII was resolved not to issue any public pronouncement that took sides in WWII; this first manifested itself in a refusal to explicitly condemn the German invasion of Poland.
WPRN TIL: When the wife of industrialist James Couzens asked for a pearl box, he donated the equivalent to $14M to the Children’s Hospital of Michigan. In her empty box was a note saying, “Your new pearls will be all the children who are eventually treated there”.