› added 7 years ago

196

TIL sultans of the Ottoman Empire employed deaf servants, because silence played a key role in expressing majesty to subjects and visitors.

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KOKPQ TIL through the use of a mirror effect, hieroglyphs seemingly come to life.
a6BA TIL that Turkey (which wants to join the EU) imprisons more journalists than China and Iran combined.
5YeGB TIL That the new £5 note that was recently created can play vinyl records when you press the corner into the groves of the vinyl.
9KAr TIL that during the 1400s, Africans trained killer bees to protect their villages and keep the slave traders away.
vPaoD TIL of the "Great Smoke Pall" of 1950, a change in the skies from wildfires in Canada. The wildfires weren't well publicized, so there was speculation that the skies changed due to reasons such as secret U.S. military experiments, supernatural forces, and alien invasion.