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117

TIL that Roman Emperor Caligula would torment his senators by making them run in front of his chariot for miles. He also was so hairy that he made it a capital offense to mention goats in his presence.

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GAPRE TIL: In the 15th century, an engineer named Orban offered to build a huge cannon for Constantinople. After they turned him down, he offered his services to the Ottomans who then used his cannon to attack Constantinople.
D1aGJ TIL in the 1950s and 60s Canada spent ‘thousands and thousands’ making a ‘gaydar’ to detect homosexual government employees
P1aDw TIL that filmmaker Preston Sturges died of a heart attack in the middle of writing his autobiography. He had planned to title his autobiography "The Events Leading Up to My Death".
Y57r TIL: The Japanese consider sleeping at work honorable as it signals exhaustion from hard work
nepXP TIL: The oldest surviving book in the world is made of gold and was found by someone digging a trench for a canal only 70 years ago in Bulgaria