› added 4 years ago

110

TIL Ancient Romans used flying penis amulets to protect them and their children from illness

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ZpMw4 TIL that in 1884, 630 French Foreign Legionnaires fought 12 000 Chinese troops at the battle of Tuyen Quang, and won.
ADV8w TIL that the brushwork on Mona Lisa is so intricate that it literally requires x-rays to view the brush strokes. Apparently, Vinci used a well-known renaissance painting technique called 'sfumato', in which he added 30 layers of paint that still came out to be only 40 micrometers.
0wWWR TIL of Albert Spaggiari, a French criminal known as the mastermind of the 1976 Société Générale bank heist, which at the time was the worlds greatest bank heist. He was eventually caught but made a dramatic courtroom escape and remained free for the rest of his life
VMP78 TIL that William Francis Buckley, CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by Hezbollah and tortured for 15 months, forcing him to reveal a network of agents, who then were killed or disappeared.
ryaw TIL Bruce Willis has publicly sold Girl Scout cookies for the United States armed forces. His daughter, Tallulah, sold him on the idea of buying cookies and sending them to troops in the Middle East. He did so and bought 12,000 cookies.