› added 11 months ago

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TIL Abraham Lincoln won the presidency in 1860 with just 39.7% of the popular vote - less than two out of five Americans voted for him.

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AnDd TIL that in medieval times “Cat-burning” was an accepted practice thought to bring good luck. It was custom to burn a barrel full of live cats over a bonfire as people shrieked with laughter while they were singed and roasted. French Kings often witnessed it and even ceremoniously started the fire.
wLOR6 TIL that there is a very rare and special type of gemstone that can only be found and formed in fossils of extinct species of cephalopods over the process of hundreds of millions of years. The most expensive opal in the world is one of these being an opalized fossil valued at over $1,000,000.
gr9mL TIL about Antônio Carlos Jobim, a Brazilian composer, songwriter, and singer sometimes known as the "father of bossa nova". His 1965 album won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year with the single "Garota de Ipanema (The Girl from Ipanema)", which became one of the most recorded songs of all time.
x6adg TIL that Shonda Rhimes accidentally invented the term 'vajayjay' on Grey’s Anatomy to get around limits on network TV as to how often characters could use the word “vagina.”
l7v8V TIL: The average person misplaces around 9 objects a day. By the time we turn 60, we will have misplaced 200,000 items and spent 6 solid months looking for them.