› added 4 months ago

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Today I learned that the aurochs (Bos primigenius), the wild ancestor of domesticated cattle, only went extinct as late as 1627, in Poland

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PYmgn TIL Nurhachi was originally defeated by Yuan Chonghuan of the Ming Dynasty. The disintegration of the Ming Dynasty was closely linked to economic decline.
QJxAL TIL "Jazz on bones" or "Ribs" were bootleg vinyl recordings made from old x-rays with holes burned in the middle from cigarettes. In the 50's and 60's they were a black market method for smuggling banned music into the Soviet Union such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Elvis.
P1kKO TIL that cricket used to be a very popular sport in America until the First World War
b6bDZ TIL The Virginia Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which imposed a "one drop rule" to count as colored, permitted up to 1/16 American Indian ancestry because the Virginia elites liked to claim descent from Pocahontas
OGeoR TIL: Illustrator W.W. Denslow was best known as the illustrator of the original L. Frank Baum Wizard of Oz books. But Denslow also created the comic strip Billy Bounce: One of the first to feature a hero with super powers. Denslow made so much money he bought an island and crowned himself king.