› added 10 years ago

95

TIL after the courtesan Leæna (whose name means lioness) refused to reveal the name of the conspirators that tried to kill the Athenian tyrant Hippias under torture, the Athenians erected a tongueless lioness statue in her memory and placed lionesses next to statues of Aphrodite.

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neQ7o TIL that Alexander Graham Bell tried to teach his dog to talk
mxXLP TIL The Japanese command didn't realize Hiroshima had been totally destroyed until almost a whole day after it happened. Vague reports of some sort of large explosion had begun to filter in, but the Japanese high command knew that no large-scale air raid had taken place over the city.
BrNmd TIL that the longest year so far was 1972. Being a leap year containing two leap seconds it lasted 31 622 402 seconds.
ABLo TIL that Canada accidentally signed in the wrong spot on the Japanese surrender treaty at the end of WWII, messing up the order of the document.
R7LYj TIL after committing the first British murder on a train Franz Muller fled to America by boat, the pursuing detectives caught a faster ship and arrived three weeks before he did. He was subsequently arrested and later hanged.