› added 2 months ago

10

TIL from 688 to 965 AD Cyprus was ruled jointly by both the Arab Caliphate and the Byzantines as a condominium with the collected taxes were divided among the Arabs and the emperor after emperor Justinian II and the caliph Abd al-Malik reached an unprecedented agreement.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

6E6Nw TIL of Henry “Box” Brown. A slave who escaped the slave state by mailing himself in a 3 foot X 2 foot X 8 inches deep box from Virginia to Philadelphia. The journey took 27 hours and he had a little water and some biscuits as food. Brown became a prolific Anti Slavery speaker
VM7Qk TIL that Vladimir Lenin spoke English with an Irish accent. According to a Russian diplomat, "Lenin said that his tutor in English was an Irishman and that was why he was speaking with an Irish accent."
KOp6E TIL: In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered the mould he was working with produced a substance that could kill many common bacteria. He called this new, exciting substance "mould juice". Only after a couple of months did he name it penicillin.
AxP7 TIL The Declaration of Causes of Seceding States from 5 states during the civil war used the word slave or a variant over 80 times. It also referred to the north as “non-slave-holding States”.
kOW7 TIL there was a reality show in 2004 that had contestants stay awake for a week, and were punished if they closed their eyes for more than 10 seconds.