› added 1 week ago

1

TIL New Jersey was the last US state to have slaves. They were not freed until January 1866 (!), when NJ became the last state to ratify the 13th Amendment

Read more slavery.princeton.edu

via reddit.com

r9Ky TIL Zheng He (born 1371) was a Chinese explorer, mariner, diplomat and fleet admiral who travelled as far as Arabia. He was a eunuch who had been castrated by the Empire and enslaved as punishment, but rose to immense power.
PYZYn TIL the movie 'Dallas Buyers Club' won an Oscar for best hair and makeup despite only having a $250 budget for it all.
9w5W6 TIL one of the first references to the mile high club was found in a betting book of a london gentlemans club. It read "LD. Cholmondeley has given two guineas to LD. Derby, to receive 500 Gs whenever his lordship fucks a woman in a balloon one thousand yards from the earth"
oBR5E TIL that the Japanese have a word ("shimensoka") that means "being forsaken by everybody" or "being surrounded by enemies on all sides"
50a9 TIL there’s an official term for Grammar Nazi’s: Prescriptivists.