› added 4 years ago

44

TIL King Charles II escaped Cromwell's forces by hiding in an oak tree. It is commemorated by Royal Oak Day in England on May 29th. The oak tree has since been destroyed by tourists who wanted a piece of the tree in the 17/18th century, but a son tree is in its place

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

1N7O TIL: The Vietnamese are the biggest consumers of the rhino horn and they received the idea that rhino horn was an aphrodisiac from the western media’s false reporting. There is no known record of its use as an aphrodisiac in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
XKBP TIL That in 2009 Chris Hemsworth filmed 2 movies (Cabin and the Woods and Red Dawn) but due to MGM’s financial troubles, they weren’t released until 2012, after the success of Thor. It also explains why he wasn’t really the main character in either film.
eyOE TIL At the end of cleaning up Chernobyl, three men were forced to travel to the top of reactor 3’s chimney to hang a red flag. Due to high radiation levels, the entire operation had to be timed to last no more than 9 minutes. Their reward was a bottle of pepsi (a luxury at the time) and a day off
grdoW TIL that at the Council of Nicea in 325, a priest called Arius proposed a heretical belief so strong he got punched by St. Nicholas, aka Santa Claus. Several years later, Arius died from rectal prolapse and according to legend, defecating out parts of his organs.
rNeNx TIL Canada has a town called Swastika, named in 1906, inspired by the spiritual symbol. During WWII, the gov't renamed it "Winston", but the residents refused. They reinstalled the old sign, with a message: “To hell with Hitler, we came up with our name first.” It's still called Swastika today.