› added 1 month ago

15

TIL that in the 1900 Summer Olympics, the Dutch team recruited a young boy from the crowd to be their coxswain. He ran off after the team won and his identity remains unknown.

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KYoWE TIL: That despite intense behind the scenes actions, Pope Pius XII was resolved not to issue any public pronouncement that took sides in WWII; this first manifested itself in a refusal to explicitly condemn the German invasion of Poland.
MGBb TIL: The largest ship in the world once sat at the bottom of the sea as a wreck
Z8VeY TIL When we're sick, symptoms like aches and fatigue are an evolutionary trait designed to minimize the spread of infection in groups of people.
8aKBa TIL that people would have sex in graveyards to “laugh in the face of death”, during the Black Death. It became illegal and people were threatened with excommunication. It was thought that sexual immorality caused the plague, so prostitution and adultery were outlawed.
j6dPQ TIL that in 1972, Italian musician Adriano Celentano released a song called Prisencolinensinainciusol. The name of the song and its lyrics are gibberish but are intended to sound like English in an American accent. It ended up being a big hit.