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TIL In 1797, Fath Ali Shah, the second Shah (king) of Qajar Iran, was given a complete set of the Encyclopædia Britannica's 3rd edition, which he read completely; after this feat, he extended his royal title to include "Most Formidable Lord and Master of the Encyclopædia Britannica.

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wOAo TIL that male garter snakes will mimic female garter snakes in order to be cuddled by other males and steal their heat - a process called ‘Kleptothermy’
Eon0 TIL Carl von Linné, father of modern taxonomy, would take revenge at his enemies by naming nasty smelling weeds after them. e.g. Siegesbeckia after a fellow botanist he begrudged.
6EJdY TIL that most of the 9/11 hijackers had no idea that they were on a suicide mission. Evidence shows that the majority likely believed that they were taking the planes hostage as a means of leveraging the release of Al-Qaeda prisoners. Only the men trained to fly the planes knew the truth.
YQrG TIL At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona Zhang Shan became the first and only woman to win a gold medal in a mixed gender event; Skeet Shooting. She was unable to defend her title at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta because the Skeet Shooting event was only open to men.
XExZX TIL on the 1st of March in 2000, Katherine Knight murdered her husband then disemboweled and carved up his body. She proceeded to cook his head in a stew and roasted his buttocks in the oven with vegetables. They were then served as steaks with notes addressed to his son and daughter.