› added 3 years ago

100

TIL Christopher Columbus hanged, burned, or cut the hands off of hundreds of thousands of Caribbean natives for their failure to bring him a bell full of gold on an island with little to no gold. Thousands committed suicide to avoid his punishments.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

p8ra8 TIL of the Fresnel lens, a specially crafted type of lens commonly used in lighthouses. Its design allows for a large aperture and short focal length without requiring the lens to be massive and heavy like a traditional convex lens. It also looks like a work of art.
Ok4e TIL that the firm formerly known as “Blackwater” and now as “Academi” [sic] deployed 400 Mercs to suppress anti-government protestors in Ukraine during 2014.
LgbQ TIL the Indus Valley Civilizaton’s major cities had flushing toilets in almost every home by 2600 BC
B5Ax TIL A 19 yr old pizza delivery guy helped save a man’s life by performing CPR on the customer who was turning blue outside the house. He said, “I left a pizza boy and came back a pizza man.” His tip was 25 bucks.
pYB84 TIL that, during his confirmation hearings in 1888, there was a debate in American newspapers over whether or not Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller's mustache was proper for an official. Some even claimed that it would distract attorneys.