› added 11 years ago

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TiL the Mediterranean filled in just 2 years when the Atlantic breached what we know as the straight of Gibraltar.

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0wplp TIL that coffee is credited with helping to spark the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th century Europe. Before coffee was introduced to that part of the world, people often drank beer/alcohol throughout the day because it was safer than water. Coffee provided a safe alternative to alcohol.
PvZV TIL of the Lavabit case, where the FBI used loopholes and exploits to force surveillance into a secure email service: “since the ‘inspection’ of the data was to be carried out by a machine, it was exempt from the normal search-and-seizure protections of the Fourth Amendment.”
LQ6Z9 TIL that in 1966, Frank Sinatra threw a phone at Frederick Weisman, breaking his skull and putting him in critical condition for 48 hours. Weisman had asked Sinatra and his friends to quiet down.
oBpEK TIL the word 'propaganda' derives from a committee of Catholic cardinals set up in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV, the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (the Sacred College for Propagating the Faith), called Propaganda for short. It's aim was to spread the Catholic faith in non-Catholic countries.
KOOX9 TIL at the beginning of his performance at Carnegie Hall, Andy Kaufman invited his "grandmother" to watch the show from a chair he had placed at the side of the stage. At the end of the show, she stood up, took her mask off and revealed that she was actually comedian Robin Williams in disguise.