› added 11 months ago

41

TIL about the Cagots, a group persecuted in France and Spain for nearly 1,000 years. Despite having no distinct language, race, religion, culture or physical traits than people around them, they faced social segregation and prejudice. Their exclusion is one of history's lesser known injustices.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

0wBKy TIL when Saint Philip Neri's body was examined after he died, two of his ribs were found broken; this was attributed at the time to a miraculous expansion of his heart while praying. However, Pope Benedict XIV later stated that Philip's enlarged heart was actually caused by an aneurism.
W7obo TIL a scientist hired his family to refine radium in their basement for 20 years, with the waste buried in the backyard. The property was declared a Superfund site and cost $70M to clean up. His body was exhumed for testing and had the largest amount of radioactive material ever detected in a human.
W7EBY TIL that one of Pharoh Ramesses III's wives plotted to have him killed through his royal harem to have her son succeed him. He died, but his chosen heir still managed to take the throne.
grMe8 TIL that uterus transplantations are possible. For instance, in 2019 two births took place in Germany after a successful transplantation. The receiving women suffered from a syndrome called Müllerian agenesis and were born without a vaginal tract.
4KRw TIL that illegal immigrants contribute roughly $15billion a year to Social Security, despite not being able to receive benefits for doing so due to falsified information or simply not being eligible.