› added 7 years ago

190

TIL that until the 17th century most scientists believed that the speed of light was infinite. It was only in 1676 that Ole Rømer and Giovanni Cassini made the first measurement of the velocity of light (just 27% off the real value) by observing the orbits of the moons of Jupiter.

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BgEZK TIL that in 1518 there was a outbreak of a 'dancing plague' in Strasbourg, in which hundreds of people inexplicably danced for weeks on end, claiming lives of victims along the way…
4d7g TIL A woman tried to break the world record for deepest free-dive, but died during the dive. The record holder was her husband.
ANKMa TIL Weird Al turned down a $5 million beer endorsement deal. He thought it was ethically wrong because a lot of his fans were young and impressionable.
M7JvB TIL there are fresh water jellyfish all over the world
1aeVW TIL that the poem to remember the days of the month "Thirty days has September", taught to children to this day, is actually at least a 600-year-old poem, with the earliest known published forms written in Old English and Latin, from 1425 and 1488, respectively.