› added 5 years ago

121

TIL that for a 16 years (from 1644-1660), eating mince pie was banned in England as it was a “frivolous activity.” This resulted in mince pie making and eating becoming an underground activity.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

KODN6 TIL that in the 80s, three brothers from Florida got HIV from medicine made to help cope with their haemophilia. After first being disallowed to go to school, a federal court ruled they were allowed to attend. A week after the verdict, their house was burned down by an arsonist.
Nk1b TIL that Ottoman sultan Mehmed II. was 21 when he conquered Constantinople, was reputed fluent in several languages, including Turkish, Serbian, Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Greek and Latin and had an affair with the younger brother of Vlad Drăculea, the literary model for the Bram Stoker’s Dracula
woJmM TIL since 2022 people in South Lake Tahoe, California reported that a single, male bear was the cause of 28 home break-ins. They referred to him as Hank the Tank. But it turned out they had conflated the actions of 3 adult bears including a female (with 3 cubs) who accounted for 21 of the break-ins.
5V6rD TIL Friday the 13th (1980) was panned by critics upon release. Gene Siskel was a vocal critic of the film, going so far as to publicly spoil the ending in an attempt to convince audiences not to see it and encourage detractors to write to actress Betsy Palmer and express their contempt for the film.
5YpyB TIL that pigeons and doves are the exact same animals.