Post * KZyB — Curious Curator

› added 10 years ago

75

TIL The largest ransom ever paid to a single individual was to the Spanish conquistador, Francisco Pizarro, by the Inca Empire before their leader, Atahualpa, the victim, was executed in 1532. The ransom payment of a “roomful of gold” was probably over $2 billion in today’s economic markets.

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awa6N TIL on Nov 22, 1963 while watching TV reports of JFK's death, Annie Shapiro had a stroke and slipped into a coma. 29 years later she awoke in bed as a 79 year old grandmother still married to her husband. Her first words upon sitting up were "Turn on the television. I want to watch I Love Lucy"

xV9Lo TIL that Paris holds an annual contest to find the city’s best baguette. Around 200 bakers each submit two baguettes (must be eligible) to be graded on quality, look, smell, taste, and crunch. The winner wins €4000 and a contract to supply the French president fresh baguettes every day for 1 year.

MeQkK TIL the present-day Washington State was originally called "Columbia", but Congress forced the name change to "Washington" in honor of George Washington and to avoid confusion with the nation's capital, the District of Columbia

lodPV TIL about Benson rafts, huge rafts up to 1000 feet long made of thousands of logs lashed together that used to be floated across 1,100 miles of open ocean from the mouth of the Columbia River to San Diego as a cheaper alternative to sending the logs by rail.

Y7QA TIL that even though Lenin believed certain sexual practices to be immoral and bourgeois, the soviet union allowed them anyways because they didn’t believe the government had to right to prevent them.