› added 9 years ago

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TIL that people accused of witchcraft who underwent trial by water actually had ropes to pull them out if they sank. The notion that the ordeal was devised as a situation without any possibility of live acquittal, even if the outcome was ‘innocent’, is a modern exaggeration.

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ZpMYR TIL Maximinus Thrax ignited the Crisis of the Third Century when he assassinated Roman Emperor Alexander Severus and seized the throne. A peasant by birth, his misrule led to his assassination and the near collapse of the empire
KOl7J TIL that in 1942, the HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen, a Dutch minesweeper based in the Netherlands East Indies, successfully disguised itself as a tropical island for several weeks in order to evade Japanese patrols, while withdrawing towards Australia after Allied setbacks in the region during the war.
KOnmE TIL the Kereru (NZ Wood Pigeon) at one time of the year fills its crop with berries while they ferment, gets drunk and falls out of trees making it easy to catch for food (it's protected now).
8ew08 TIL some people etch their favorite cooking recipe onto their gravestones when they die. You can find these gravestones and recreate these tasty dishes.
w0B6 TIL that the CIA once turned down a ‘Freedom of Information Act’ request that inquired about Osama Bin Laden’s “fairly extensive” porn collection collected in the raid of his compound in 2011.