› added 4 years ago

73

TIL that the superstitious tradition of knocking on wood for good luck is believed to have been conceived by ancient Indo-European people who believed that spirits (both good and bad) lived within the trees. By knocking on a tree one was asking for a blessing from the spirit which lived within.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

7rgVP TIL That after winning the battle of Kleidion in 1014, the Byzantine Emperor Basil II took an estimated 14,000-15,000 prisoners, and punished them by sorting them into groups of a 100, then blinded 99 men in each one and left a single man in each with one eye so that he could lead the others home.
pYymA TIL If you have a fear of bridges, you can hire a service where someone gets behind the wheel of your car and drives you across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, a 4.3-mile stretch in Maryland known as one of the scariest bridges in the world.
0d6P1 TIL about Rabbi Isaac Ben Samuel of Acre who lived in 14th century Spain and proposed the universe was 15.3 billion years old, not too far off from modern science that says the universe is 13.8 billion years old.
XE97D TIL that tomatoes contain similar protein structures to grass pollen, and thus can cause mouth irritation for hay-fever sufferers
GYDp7 TIL that US sailors captured by North Korea, were flipping the middle finger in photos to protest the propaganda on their treatment. The North Koreans for months photographed them without knowing the real meaning of the finger, while the sailors explained that the sign meant good luck in Hawaii.