› added 12 years ago

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TIL that after the Napoleonic Wars, a tobacco merchant named Joseph Williamson paid people in Edge hill, Liverpool to dig miles-long tunnels underground. The tunnels served no purpose, and he did so only to provide employment.

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9wbbM TIL that Mussolini used castor oil to humiliate and torture political enemies. Victims had their mouths forced open, and a bottle of castor oil was poured down their throats, causing severe diarrhea, dehydration, and public humiliation. This was a common method to punish opponents of Fascism.
epRKn Today I learned that, after Phil Hartman's death, the Simpsons staff considered casting Harry Shearer as the replacement voice actor for the character Lionel Hutz, but decided to retire Lionel Hutz instead.
5Y5aQ TIL of Operation Vegetarian a British WWII project to introduce anthrax into German beef and dairy herds and possibly spread to the human population.
d8r7E TIL that the Pledge of Allegiance was compulsory in US schools until a Jehovah Witness Father appealed to the court that saluting the flag in such a manner made it a "graven image," and by forcing his children to do so was an attack on this family's right to freedom of religion and speech.
E7jX TIL Komodo dragons are actually venomous rather than, as long thought, poisoning their victims with the bacteria in their saliva. Turns out, according to one researcher, “that whole bacteria stuff has been a scientific fairy tale”. The venom works slowly and makes the victim too weak to fight.