› added 10 years ago

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TIL that Ancient Greek cities honored victorious Olympian athletes by demolishing part of the city wall so that, on their return, they wouldn’t have to use the gate like ordinary mortals.

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via reddit.com

4k1xg Til that the 6th century Architect Anthemius persecuted his neighbour and rival Zenon by reflecting sunlight into Zenon's house and by faking earthquakes there with underground steam pipes.
0wmaM TIL in the efforts to capture a man-eating tigress, Indian wildlife officials used the perfume Obsession for Men by Calvin Klein as bait. The perfume contains a pheromone called civetone, which a US study found to be attracting to jaguars.
rRWo1 TIL the word quarantine comes from the Venetian "quaranta" meaning 40, for the 40 days that ships were supposed to stay off the coast in Europe to prevent the spread of the black death in the 1300s
aJYL TIL A woman sued a hospital claiming a CAT Scan made her lose her psychic powers
kJgV5 TIL Uday Hussein was a big fan of Star Wars and he made the fighters of the Fedayeen Saddam wear helmets inspired by Darth Vader’s