› added 2 years ago

55

TIL about Giles Corey, who was accused of witchcraft during the Salem trials. He used a legal loophole and refused to plea, which meant he couldn't be tried. He was then tortured to death, but still refused to plea, allowing his children to claim their inheritance.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

v0b7 TIL that a “band-aid” for “people of color” was marketed in the late 90s and early 00s, but failed to gain traction, partly due to retailers insistence on only featuring the item in the “ethnic sections” rather than in-line with its “white” counterparts.
yVWVp TIL that the Mr. Mister song ‘Broken Wings’ has the same lyric ‘take these broken wings, and learn to fly’ as the Beatles song ‘Black Bird’. Apparently both groups were inspired by the same poet-philosopher Kahlil Gibran
78pDb TIL after Taft's election as president, there was an attempt to replace the Teddy bear with Billy the Possum as the new popular plush toy. All because William Taft was very fond of opossum meat.
W7LJX TIL, Jupiter's upper atmosphere is much hotter (~425°C/800°F) than originally predicted and much hotter at the poles than the equator. Jupiter's magnetic field creates enormous auroras at the poles that heat up the rest of the planet.
vPlrR TIL of Loewe v. Lawlor, a 1908 Supreme Court case which outlawed secondary boycotts in the US. Union members were ordered to pay $234,000 ($5.8 M today) for organizing a boycott.