› added 1 year ago

75

TIL Ignaz Semmelweis pioneered the habit of washing hands in hospitals but was rejected, had a mental breakdown and was sent to an asylum and was beat to death by the guards (XIX century)

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

E1ZM7 TIL Cognitive distortions are inaccurate thoughts which are usually used to reinforce negative thinking or emotions — telling ourselves things that sound rational and accurate, but really only serve to keep us feeling bad about ourselves.
JP6B TIL that although they are unable to produce chlorophyll Albino Redwood trees can survive, this is because the albino trees are able fuse their roots with the roots of other Redwood and live as parasites, there are only 61 known examples of this.
KOepR TIL that in 1969, a civil war in Nigeria held a ceasefire for a couple of days to watch a match of Pelé’s Santos. The governor decreted a holiday and opened the city’s bridge without any restrictions so everyone could watch the game.
dJr8 TIL Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon, Da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Neil Armstrong (+ many others) were all Deists. They believed God did not interfere or effect events on Earth - a view seen as herecy throughout most of their lives.
m1r1R TIL that when Napoleon surrendered after Waterloo he assumed he would be allowed to see out his exile comfortably as a foreign monarch in Britain, writing to the Prince Regent to ask "for a country house ‘about ten or twelve leagues from London – a big enough house to accommodate all my suite’."