› added 3 months ago

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TIL: Medieval European cuisine used to be more complex and flavorful. However, once spice became cheap and readily available to the poor, the elites started taking spices out of European cooking as they didn't want to be associated with the poor. This trend had lasting effects on European cuisine.

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J1XQ4 TIL that the idea that medieval castles had clockwise spiral staircases to make it hard for attackers is mostly unfounded. Not only did about 30% of medieval castles have counter-clockwise stairs, the earliest known reference for this claim comes from a book written in 1903, with no primary sources
xWj0 TIL that when President Roosevelt visited The Pentagon in 1945 before its dedication he ordered them to remove the whites only signes and therefore making The Pentagon the only building in Virginia were segregation laws were not enforced until 1965.
WMZA TIL Halle Berry attended a Star Trek screening and mistook an audience member for Trek’s Klingon Michael Dorn. When the man refused to say he was Dorn, Berry became angry, stood up during the movie, screamed and stomped out.
dD879 TIL that by letting a wolf population recover, traffic collisions caused by deer are reduced by nearly 25%; the reduction is not based as much on the decimation of the deer population but on the “landscape of fear” created by the wolves.
YMYW TIL: AN Irish Army once invaded Canada