› added 8 years ago

143

TIL after escaping from slavery, an illiterate Harriet Tubman was spotted by a former master on a train. She decided to pick up a nearby newspaper and pretended to read it. The master ignored the black woman reading because he knew Tubman couldn’t read.

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VnyD TIL that the -pter in “helicopter” and “pterodactyl” are from the same Greek word “pteron” meaning ‘wing’
1anaX TIL that Stephen King bought the van that hit and nearly killed him, for $1500 to prevent fans from buying it, and he announced that he was ‘going to take a sledgehammer and beat it’.
pYmxe TIL a female poisoner named Locusta not only poisoned members of the Roman Imperial family, but also started a school to teach others her deadly trade – backed by Emperor Nero
Kwmw TIL Reddit makes an (estimated) 147m$ per year
7BdO TIL that octopuses are very intelligent, and that in 1875 an octopus at the Brighton Aquarium would escape its tank when the guards weren’t around, eat the lump fish in another tank, then go back to its own tank before the aquarium opened