› added 5 years ago

95

TIL there is no such thing as premium vodka, at least in the USA. Title 27, Section 5.22 of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Code says that vodka must be distilled or treated until it is, quote, "without distinctive character, aroma, taste or color." If it has any distinction, its not Vodka.

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via reddit.com

JYxoj TIL Countess Darya Nikolayevna Saltykova was convicted of killing 38 female serfs by beating and torturing them to death. Imprisoned at Ivanovsky Convent in Moscow; for the first 11 years, she was chained in a basement dungeon without a window and only given a candle during meals.
154W TIL when Columbus first sailed to America his ship’s captain (Rodrigo de Triana) spotted land first but Columbus later claimed he had already seen it a few hours earlier, thereby claiming for himself the lifetime pension that had been promised by King Ferdinand to the first person to sight land.
x6X1B TIL that Louis XVI wasn’t executed days after the Bastille storming but four years after.
N7QV8 TIL ancient folklore saved several native tribes during the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami (death toll 230,000). While many locals and tourists ventured curiously into the receding waters, the natives fled, citing "huge shaking of ground followed by high wall of water"
pKAQ TIL that the 4th crusade, which intended to capture Jerusalem, never arrived at its intended target but instead took a detour and sacked Constantinople, the largest and wealthiest christian city in the world.