› added 8 years ago

231

TIL that the most lethal sport riot in history happened in Constantinople AD 532, was over chariot racing, and saw tens of thousands dead and half the city destroyed.

Read more smithsonianmag.com

via reddit.com

VMaQ4 TIL nearly 25% of all the bones in a human body are located in the foot
kJ4xd TIL Jeffrey Dahmer converted to Christianity after being baptized by a pastor named Roy Ratcliff. Dahmer met with Ratcliff every week to discuss the Bible until he was murdered 14 months later. Ratcliff described Dahmer as a truly changed man.
R5jR4 TIL that the phrase "Friends of Bill W" is a dogwhistle meaning members of Alcoholics Anonymous, after the organization's co-founder Bill Wilson.
ADWx TIL- Leif Ericson discover North America 500 years before Columbus using Iceland Spar, a stone that refracts light in 2 visible wavelengths, enabling him to find the sun on cloudy days.
mG9Y TIL that in 19th century England, a man by the name of Jack Black was an expert rat catcher. When he caught rats of unusual colour, he would breed them and sell the well bred rats to nobility. Even Queen Victoria kept a pet rat or two.