› added 3 years ago

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TIL: Before he was caught, Charles Ponzi the namesake of the Ponzi scheme successfully sued a newspaper for libel and won $500,000 in damages after it suggested there was no way Ponzi could legally deliver such high returns in a short period of time.

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7rKEM TIL Some Ancient Pacific Islanders explored the seas using their testicles as a navigational tool.
QJrdd TIL That the Catholic Church basically caused slavery in North America through Spain and Portugal
Y7G8d TIL of the Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War - a bloodless war between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly that lasted from 1651 until peace was officially declared in 1986
XRJ6 TIL “Kleptocracy” is a government with corrupt rulers (kleptocrats) that use their power to exploit the people and natural resources of their own territory in order to extend their personal wealth and political power.
E1dZP TIL of the Surya Siddhanta, a book written in 4th century CE in India which describes the Earth’s diameter as 8000 miles (7928 by current standards) and the spherical shape of the earth also providing an accurate distance of the Moon from the earth before much before Galileo.