› added 7 years ago

227

TIL that Oprah was born to a single mother, wore potato sacks for clothes, was molested by her family, and gave birth to a stillborn child at 14

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7r9yP TIL of the frog galvanoscope. The first electrical voltage testers were made by using a frog's leg with the sciatic nerve still attached and connecting two points on the leg to a potential electrical source.
wdxW TIL that in 192, the Roman emperor Commodus declared himself the new Romulus and “re-founded” Rome. He then renamed a bunch of things in his own honor, including the city itself and the names of the 12 months (which he changed to correspond with his 12 names)
16x08 TIL about Camille Armand Jules Marie de Polignac. He was a French nobleman who fought for the Confederates in the American Civil War. When he died in 1913, he was the last surviving Confederate major-general.
165mW TIL that Europeans starting using the term “Aztec” to refer to the people who lived around the city of Tenochtitlan, but that’s not what they called themselves. They referred to themselves as the Mexica.
xoAg TIL Oscar the cat, a stray taken in by a Rhode Island nursing home, seems to only visit patients shortly before death. He is so accurate in predicting peoples death, that their families are notified as soon as he gets cozy to a patient.