› added 5 years ago

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TIL that in the US the Rod of Asclepius, symbol of the deity associated with healing and medicine, is often confused with the staff of the god Hermes, the caduceus.

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LQ1a9 TIL that typewriters used to not have an exclamation mark on them, or even the number 1, both had to be approximated by typing other characters in their place. 1 was a lowercase L and exclamation marks were the combination of an apostrophe and period.
JYNVv TIL the human eye only needs 5 photons to elicit visual experience.
NYa8 TIL that a pastor and his wife kidnapped a 4-month old baby to raise as a slave. They forced her to serve them and consistently beat, tortured, and molested her. She was rescued at 19 years old and had 410 scars on her body.
WNQB TIL former US President Calvin Coolidge (1924-28) enjoyed “buzzing for his bodyguards and then hiding under his desk as they frantically searched for him”
MjrA TIL during 19th century construction of Paris’s underground sewers, workers found lost medieval dungeons, jewels, and the skeleton of an orangutan that had previously escaped from the zoo.