› added 4 years ago

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TIL before asbestos was seen as hazardous, a Han dynasty general had a jacket made from it. He would pretend to spill wine on it at dinners. Then he'd throw it into a fire and pull it out to show it was still intact to impress his guests.

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7vYO TIL that in 2007 a gorilla escaped from his exhibit, grabbed and mauled a nearby woman, and then attacked a restaurant. It was later revealed it was caused by the woman making eye contact and smiling at him several times a week, which zookeepers told her not to do.
0d65M TIL, in 2000, the April issue of the Romanian edition of Playboy magazine published an article titled 'How to Beat Your Wife Without Leaving Marks on Her Body' as an April Fool's joke. It backfired, and women's organizations in Romania spoke up in protest.
mxvZR TIL in Germany in 1938, while searching for a water source for a town, workers found an ancient spring feed line to a Roman aqueduct which had supplied Cologne 60 miles away. The feed was simply connected into the modern water network. To avoid damage to the spring no archaeological work was done.
awAOy TIL about Bill Richmond, a black slave who fought alongside the British during the Revolutionary War. He later moved to England where he became one of the world's most famous bare-knuckle boxers. An articulate, respected man, he married a white woman and attended George IV’s coronation.
awNeN TIL that the animal with the smallest known brain to body ratio is the "bony-eared assfish"