› added 1 week ago

4

TIL the town of Honiton, UK has a "Hot Penny Day" a recreation of a 13th century tradition where wealthy people would heat pennies on the stove, throw them into the streets and laugh at the poor people who picked them up.

Read more bbc.com

via reddit.com

pYPYQ TIL that Dogs can smell stress from human sweat and breath. This means that dogs can be trained to preemptively offer comfort to sufferers of psychological illnesses like PTSD, to prevent attacks and improve quality of life
n9dP TIL that before escaping prison, Winston Churchill left a letter of apology on his bed. The letter began: “I have the honour to inform you that as I do not consider that your Government have any right to detain me as a military prisoner, I have decided to escape from your custody.”
PYKOw TIL that a Norman Rockwell painting was discovered in a secret compartment inside the walls of a cartoonists house. It’d been hidden there for 35 years. The cartoonist had forged several paintings he owned to stop his ex-wife from getting them in a divorce settlement, and had hidden the originals.
yVNxe TIL that Louis Coulon de Villiers was the only commander to make George Washington surrender, having defeated Washington at the Battle of Fort Necessity in 1754.
JYZGv TIL there was a paramilitary socialist group in Canada in the 1960s that wanted to overthrow their provincial government with an armed revolution. The only peace time use of Canada's War Measures Act was to stop them. The group was in contact with the KGB, and the top members were exiled to Cuba.