› added 2 months ago

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TIL about the Blue Men of the Minch, mythological creatures from Scotland. They live in the sea and can speak. When a group approaches a ship, their chief says two lines of poetry to the ship's captain. If the captain fails to finish the poem, the Blue Men will try to capsize the ship

M7PGb TIL that when Louis XVI was executed in 1793 during the French Revolution, his severed head was paraded around for the crowd and was met with exclamations of "Vive la Republique!"
JYJ8j TIL that Queen Elizabeth has two birthdays: her actual date of birth and her "official" birthday. On her official birthday she is joined by members of the royal family for the Trooping the Colour parade. Btw, Happy actual 94th Birthday to the Queen today!
MeZwV TIL when John Lennon was having his toilet replaced, one of the builders, John Hancock, decided to store it in his shed. About 40 years later, in 2010 Lennon's lavatory was auctioned off for £9500.
6959m TIL the first computers were humans, most of whom were women. A person performing mathematical calculations, before the widespread use electronic computers, was ascribed the term computer. From 1865 onwards, women composed a considerable proportion of these human computers, playing a pivotal role.
1ablW TIL that Marathonist athletes in the early 1900s used brandy, glasses of bubbly, and strychnine (best known now as rat poison) and sometimes even heroin or cocaine to mask pain, increase aggressiveness, and/or give a quick energy boost during races!