› added 12 years ago

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TIL that a priest on the titanic refused a place on a life boat twice, and stayed behind to hear confessions and give absolution to people left on the ship.

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via reddit.com

7rK57 TIL that when Pope Benedict XI (1302) decided to hire a painter, he sent a messenger to Florence, Italy to collect a sample from Giotto. Giotto drew a perfect circle and handed it to the messenger, instructing him to bring it to the Pope. When the pope learned it was done freehand, he hired Giotto.
m1nvP TIL Emperor Jing of the Han dynasty of China, while he was crown prince, beat his cousin to death with the board during a board game argument. Said cousin was the crown prince of one of Emperor Jing's vassal states, and his death resulted in his father hating Emperor Jing and eventually rebelling.
eM9E TIL deaf babies engage in “fingerbabble” that mimics the verbal babbling of their hearing peers. When raised around signing parents, they start forming repetitive, rudimentary sign shapes w/ their hands that resemble monosyllabic verbal babbles
wVV8 TIL Apple used ‘Carl Sagan’ as a codename for a computer in the 1990s. Carl Sagan sent Apple a cease-and-desist letter, and Apple changed the name to 'Butt-Head Astronomer’. Carl Sagan sued for libel and lost, and Apple changed the name to 'Lawyers are Wimps’.
04BM TIL popular 80s artist Patrick Nagel who did the cover art for Duran Duran’s Rio, died at age 38 of a heart attack after participating in a 15 minute celebrity “aerobathon” to benefit the American Heart Association.