› added 5 years ago

92

TIL that despite the Seven Years' War between Britain and France, France instructed its ships not to interfere with the Endeavour's expedition to Tahiti to observe the 1769 Transit of Venus as, it was ‘out on enterprises of service to all mankind'.

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yVdDe TIL Little Ice Age (16th - 19th century) led to bad harvests, hunger & starvation for millions of people; increased disease and crime. The 17th century was marked by pronounced political instability and upheaval, such as the English revolutions & wars in Spain, Italy, China, and the Ottoman Empire.
aw0WA TIL PT Barnum bought a blind, elderly slave with a shrunken appearance and toured the country with her while claiming she was 161 years old and had breastfed George Washington when he was a baby. When she died, Barnam then sold her to a surgeon and had her autopsy performed live on Broadway.
XPw8 TIL that Brazil participated in WW2, the only independent South American country to do so. The 25,000-troop Brazilian Expeditionary Force worked alongside the Allies, and managed to take 20,573 Axis prisoners, consisting of two generals, 892 officers and 19,679 other ranks.
gM1yW TIL That SleepNumber beds and mattresses contain microphones and record audio that its users agree to in purchasing the bed and creating a profile. It is in the privacy policy.
ew8g TIL Earth’s rotation is slowing at a rate of approximately 17 milliseconds a century, and the length of a day for the dinosaurs was closer to 22 hours.