› added 8 years ago

453

TIL that frequent making of jokes, including puns, can be a diagnosed disorder, possibly caused by a stroke

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mx09Y TIL that in 1890 author Robert Louis Stevenson ('The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde') publicly denounced a well-known priest for slandering Father Damien of Molokai, who had dedicated his life to treating leprosy and died of it as a result. The priest's name was Dr. Charles Hyde.
bm0p TIL: Large numbers of free Blacks owned black slaves in numbers disproportionate to their representation in society. According to the federal census of 1830, free blacks owned more than 10,000 slaves in Louisiana, Maryland, South Carolina, and Virginia.
9Ymgm TIL that the US Navy owns a ship named USS Chancellorsville, which is literally named after a battle that the US lost.
QJEDp TIL Armadillos can jump 3-4 feet in the air when startled
Lj8v TIL that the “Kentucky meat shower” was an incident in 1876 where flakes of red meat (identified as lung tissue from horse or human infant) fell from the sky for several minutes. Theories include vulture vomit or a type of bacteria called nostoc.