› added 8 years ago

406

TIL that carrots used to be purple until the late 16th century

Read more businessinsider.com

via ift.tt

6EVp7 TIL that after 2 years of using a Catalan mercenary company to fight the Turks, the Byzantine emperor betrayed the company and tried to wipe them out in 1305. The mercenaries went on a rampage so destructive that the monks of Mount Athos only lifted their ban of Catalan citizens in the year 2000.
Eal7 TIL of HitchBOT, a robot designed to rely on humans to get from place to place. It successfully hitched rides across Canada and Germany before attempting to thumb its way from Boston to San Francisco. The experiment ended in Philadelphia when vandals left HitchBOT decapitated on a street corner.
GYx97 TIL that Hello kitty is the second highest-grossing media franchise after Pokémon
7rM0X TIL Bob Odenkirk and Judd Apatow wrote the infamous SNL sketch starring William Shatner telling a bunch of hapless Trekkies to "Get a life!" at a Star Trek convention
9k7r TIL That there’s a (nonmilitary) college that does not charge tuition/fees in the US. Instead, they rely on almost a $1B endowment and student work.