› added 7 years ago

212

TIL that for the Merovingian dynasty (457-751 AD), the power of a king was based on the length of his hair. If a rival shaved the head of a king, then his power would be lost. The man with the longest hair in the kingdom would subsequently inherit the throne.

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pb48 TIL of the Rajneeshee bioterror attack, in 1984 a cult sprayed salmonella on doorknobs and food in a town in Oregon to poison people so they would be too sick to vote and the cult could take over the town. It was the largest biological attack in U.S. history
ne8rr TIL Syphilis was known as the "French disease" in Europe as is rumored to have been conceived in the 15th century after the French army was celebrating a victory in Naples, Italy
d8QAQ TIL there are 3 types of fun: Type 1 fun is enjoyable while it’s happening. Type 2 fun is miserable while it’s happening, but fun in retrospect. Type 3 fun is not fun at all, not even in retrospect.
N9J1 TIL it is estimated that there are around 110 million landmines planted all over the world, many of them having been there for decades.
9YV5D TIL closed captions and subtitles are different. Closed captions assume that watchers can't hear anything, therefore describing background noises, music and other audio cues that need discribing, while subtitles are assuming that the watchers can hear, and just says what the characters are saying.