› added 3 days ago

1

TIL that Tudor England strictly regulated begging. Healthy beggars would be whipped or branded with a "V." Only the sick or weak were allowed to beg—and only in assigned areas. If caught begging elsewhere, they were punished.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

j7op TIL: That the Czechs who worked in the gun factories for the Germans, during wwii, would deliberately bend the sights out of shape, to make the rifles inaccurate. Skip to 05:30 minutes in.
NoLQ TIL Charles Darwin married his first cousin Emma Wedgwood, before having 10 children, three of which died before the age of 11. This lead him to wonder whether close genetic matches had an impact on health, adding to his theory of evolution and the passing of traits to offspring.
VMxrp TIL that about 50,000 British criminals were "transported" to the American colonies for either 7 or 14 years as punishment in leiu of the death sentence. It ended with the American Revolution. UK jails then became overcrowded until they created the new colony of Australia and the practice restarted
p8bYA TIL that Minoru Yamasaki, the architect who designed the original World Trade Center towers had a fear of heights. This fear influenced the design of the buildings which is why the window columns were only 18 inches apart.
R5941 TIL In the UK, you are required by law to have a television license to watch TV.