› added 11 years ago

246

TIL a million Europeans were enslaved by North African slave traders between 1530 and 1780

Read more washingtontimes.com

via reddit.com

QJa9k TIL in 1861, the King of Siam offered a pair of elephants as a gift to America "to be let loose to increase and multiply in the continent of America". Lincoln sent a letter declining the gift, as elephants would be useless in Industrial America, and they likely would not survive anyway.
newLd TIL the name "Ouija board" came from a medium asking a Ouija board what they should call it. The board also told her it meant "Good luck." In a related circumstance, the medium acknowledged she wearing a locket with the picture of a woman with the name “Ouija” above her head.
5Q7p TIL in 2006 Bill Murray joined an NYU archaeology team for a dig in the Mediterranean because he felt like it
e0YKJ TIL in 1996 Pfizer killed 11 children during illegal human experiments in Nigeria while testing it's new antibiotic trovafloxacin (Trovan).
DnMJ TIL that IKEA, which makes profits in the hundreds of millions, is set up as a charity in order to evade taxes.