› added 3 weeks ago

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TIL Popes, at various times, have married, been adulterers, had mistresses, fathered illegitimate children, ordered the murders of rivals, been financially corrupt, started wars and even encouraged English Catholics to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I

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Rd81 TIL: That the Soviet Diplomat Molotov was reportedly the only man to ever “shake hands” with Stalin, Lenin, Hitler, Himmler, Göring, Roosevelt and Churchill.
jNWYR TIL that a mirror is used to treat phantom-limb pain (Pain in a limb that was amputated but the brain still thinks is attached)
jgpQ TIL that reindeer are unable to walk and pee at the same time, so they have to take a bathroom break roughly every 6 miles. The distance between stops is so regular that in Finnish, this distance is known as “poronkusema” or “reindeer’s piss” and was a description of distances in the countryside.
5Yl1R TIL 1897, a ghost’s testimony was admitted as evidence to a United States Superior Court trial that resulted in a conviction. Edward Shue was accused of killing his wife, Zona Shue, and four weeks later her ghost appeared before her mother with post mortem statements that detailed Edward’s crime.
Nnb1 TIL When the Kurds revolted against British rule in the 1920’s, Winston Churchill said; “I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against the uncivilized tribes… it would spread a lively terror.” Decades later, Saddam Hussein did what Churchill advocated (Poison Gas Attack on Halabja, 1988).