› added 11 years ago

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TIL that cretin, the first word used to describe a mental handicap, comes from the French word for Christian

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vP4Jr TIL A monument in Kyoto contains severed noses from 38000 Koreans and 30000 Chinese from a Japanese invasion in the 1590s. No Japanese textbook mentioned it until the 80s, after a publisher resisted pressure from the ministry of education to use a softer tone and praise the invasion leader Hideyoshi
9bPm TIL Tilda Swinton comes from one of only three families that can trace their unbroken land ownership and lineage to before the Norman Conquest
M0A0 TIL there is a narcotic named ‘Scopolamine’, that, when blown into your face or placed in your drink, renders you incapable of exercising your free will, and wipes your memory of the events that took place.
yQApJ TIL Bill Miner, an American bank robber from the early 1900's, is reputed to have been the originator of the phrase "Hands up!"
yQpgl TIL those holes in the mortar around my brick home are called weep holes and a sign of good masonry work.