› added 5 years ago

171

TIL the Congo Free State was a money grabbing scheme orchestrated by King Leopold II in the 1890s that caused the death of 10 to 15 million Congolese. One policy in place required a hand for every bullet shot, resulting in whole villages being harvested for their hands.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

wVE6 TIL that Andrew Jackson’s political opponents referred to him as jackass. He adopted the name and used it as his campaign symbol. It would eventually become the symbol of the entire Democratic Party.
kOBke TIL Forty years ago, a prominent designer received a call from an undergrad architecture student who told him that a design flaw in his 59-story Manhattan skyscraper could cause it to collapse during a storm. Initially he scoffed, then disturbingly, figured that she was right...
4XExR TIL that the actor who played Teal'c in Stargate, SG1 (Christopher Judge) is also the voice for Kratos in God of War
nVkG TIL Christopher Lee, when acting the scene in which Saruman is stabbed from behind in The Return of the King, informed Peter Jackson that because he would be stabbed in the lungs, he would not be able to scream. He knew this from his time in the SAS during WWII
9BP6 TIL Psychopaths do not lack empathy, rather they can switch it on at will, according to new research.