› added 11 months ago

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TIL NASCAR racing started in Appalachia, where moonshiners would modify their cars to outrun law enforcement. They studied aerodynamics, and would rig cars with the ability to drop nails, oil, or clouds of smoke to hinder police.

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E1Bvp TIL that Abigail Adams, who believed slavery was evil and antithetical to democracy, wrote on the eve of the Revolutionary War, that she doubted her fellow Americans had the "passion for liberty" they claimed to have, given how they "deprived their fellow creatures" of freedom.
d80OZ TIL that a deep sea snail known as the Scaly-Foot Gastropod, which was only recently discovered in 2001, has a shell so well constructed that the U.S. military is researching its design, hoping to incorporate its defensive layers to improve military armor.
ANkZw TIL we can inherit traits from our parents and even emotions like fear. From Science, a recent study "found that heritable changes in plant flowering time and other traits were the result of epigenetics alone."
loZY7 TIL of the bacteria Actimomyces Naeslundii, which resides in the human mouth and is heavily linked to tooth decay and periodontal disease.
woVpP TIL about the 1936 presidential election in which Roosevelt received 98.49% of the electoral vote total, which remains the highest percentage of the electoral vote won by any candidate since 1820.