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TIL that Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor had an extramarital sexual relationship with his own step-grandmother, Germaine de Foix, who was one of his many mistresses. Charles later married his first cousin, Isabella of Portugal. His sister, Eleanor, married Isabella's father and her uncle, King Manuel.

a8Aw0 TIL Though commonly thought to be owned by no-one, 7 countries have made territorial claims to Antarctica, including Australia, UK, New Zealand, and France. The US does not acknowledge it.
b9K97 TIL that the people of the Åland Islands wanted to be annexed by Sweden, but the Swedish government was preoccupied, so they sent them off to the LoN, where a Japanese-influenced delegation handed them over to Finland with a justification they hoped they could use to justify their own imperialism
7rNWx TIL Grindadráp is a tradition of the Faroe Isalands. in Denmark, were they slaughtered 1,000 long-finned pilot whales a year.
gM8nD TIL The Romans used to send each other little postcards made of a thin layer of flexible wood written on in ink and then folded in two. About 400 tablets (in fragments) were found near where Hadrian's wall would be built. They tell us a great deal about the nature of life on the Roman frontier.
yQ47p TIL the first song Joshua Radin ever wrote and recorded (on his roommate’s computer) was ‘Winter’, which was featured at the end of arguably the best Scrubs episode, ‘My Screw Up’. He was friends with Zach Braff because they went to Northwestern together. It launched his music career.