› added 10 years ago

262

TIL “Testify” comes from the Latin word testis, which means “witness”. In ancient Rome, two men taking an oath of allegiance held each other’s testicles, and men held their own testicles as a sign of truthfulness while bearing witness in a public forum or court of law.

N7wRM TIL that on the night of September 10th, 2001, an artist by the name Monika Bravo filmed 7 hours of footage of a thunderstorm from the 91st floor of the WTC North Tower. She took the raw footage home with her that night. The next morning, both towers collapsed. The video she edited is found here:
WRw4 TIL After Pope Gregory IX associated cats with devil worship, cats throughout Europe were exterminated in droves. This sudden lack of cats led to an increase in rat infestation which in turn increased the spread of disease, the most devastating being the Bubonic Plague.
neYQP TIL that a self proclaimed "Grammar Vigilante" has been correcting grammatically incorrect store signs in Bristol at night since 2003. He uses an 8 foot long apparatus called the "Apostrophiser" to correct signs such as "Amy's Nail's" and "Cambridge Motor's"
LkMBP TIL that because the Western European medieval monastic day began at 6 am, the word “noon” originally referred to “3 pm” and is derived from the Latin “nona hora” (“ninth hour”). During the 12th-14th centuries, its meaning in English shifted to “midday” and the time gradually moved back to 12 pm.
gMD8D TIL what the fox really says.. Woke up in the middle of the night hearing someone scream in the backyard. it sounded like someone being tortured. Turns out, it was a fox (not my recording, but it was pretty similar)