› added 4 years ago

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TIL Churches in Europe once employed “dog whippers” who would whip unruly dogs on church grounds during services. They also popped sleepy parishioners on the head in England.

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4MMa TIL of Cookie, a cockatoo who has been a resident of the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago since it opened in 1934. He will turn 82 in this coming June.
Z8Nnv TIL the Agongointo-Zoungoudo Underground Town in Benin was rediscovered in 1998 when an unsuspecting bulldozer toppled into one of the caverns. Dating back to the early 17th century reign of King Dakodonou, the town consists of over 17 acres of underground homes built to shelter warriors.
yVWOe TIL the AA/NA 12-step de-addiction program didn't work even for the guy who invented it.
GAOj TIL Napoleon requested a communication method that woud not require light or sound. The result was Night Writing, a tactile military code that was rejected as too difficult for Napoleon’s troops, but which became the basis for Braille.
PY0Qn TIL of William James Beal. In 1879, he started one of the longest running experiments in botany, testing the seed viability of 21 plant species over long periods of time. The experiment is scheduled to finish in 2100, when the last bottle of seeds will be tested.