› added 11 months ago

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TIL Byzantine emperors hired Vikings as guards. One of whom, Halfdan, left runic graffiti on the Hagia Sophia.

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m1npE TIL that in Laos, people practice 'whole animal eating' to avoid being wasteful. This means they not only eat all the meat and organs of animals but also their bile/vomit, which is called "ki aun" or "soft poo". Unsurprisingly, it smells like poop. But apparently it tastes like chicken.
ANmEg TIL in 1880s Helena, Montana, prostitution was the largest employer of women. By 1886, 52 women worked in the trade. Wealthy madams, like Josephine “Chicago Joe” Hensley, owned downtown property, a saloon, a theater, and even started a mortgage company.
nE6P TIL that global production of vanilla wasn’t possible before a 12 year old slave named Edmund Albius discovered a method of artificial pollination in 1841.
woov6 TIL Elizabeth, the current Queen of England, is the second-longest verified, reigning monarch of all time. She has a little less than 2 years to beat the record set by the French monarch Louis the XIV, the "Sun King".
GlZj TIL Due to name confusion, staff of the Slovak and Slovenian embassies meet once a month to exchange wrongly addressed mail