› added 7 years ago

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TIL the first “lolcat” was unintentionally created in 1870 when British photographer Harry Pointer took a series of photos of cats in amusing poses and added humorous text to them to further increase their appeal.

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yVVpJ TIL Napoleon made Bavaria a kingdom, adopted his wife's non-noble niece, gave her a title and dowry, and got her engaged to a powerful prince, just so he could get his step-son to marry another powerful princess, who had been previously engaged to the prince
E10RX TIL the Ebola Virus should be called Yambuku fever, since that was the village in Zaire where it was identified in 1976 by Peter Piot, a Belgian scientist. Piot decided to name it after the river Ebola, 60 miles from Yambuku, to avoid stigmatizing the village by giving its name to a deadly disease.
78J8r TIL King Henry VIII of England hired four men who regularly checked his faeces, monitored his bowel movements and wiped his bottom. They were appropriately called ‘Grooms of the King’s Stool’ and all of them were eventually knighted.
wLpaM TIL tattoos and body art were illegal in the state of Massachusetts until the year 2000, considering it a "crime against the person".
X8L8 TIL there are more trees in North America than there were 100 years ago.