› added 11 years ago

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TIL that Oxford University is so old, one of its contituent colleges called “New College” was established in 1379.

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j6NZn TIL that there was a Confederate general named "States Rights Gist." He was one of 14 Confederate Generals to become casualties on a single day in a single battle - the Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864 (6 killed, 7 wounded, 1 captured).
YpZpW TIL that a Ha-Ha is a wall that is recessed into the ground in order to preserve an uninterrupted view of the landscape beyond. A Ha-Ha is used at the Washington Monument to reduce the visual impact of security measures following 9/11.
R7WV6 TIL In 1867, a jar was found in a Paris pharmacy with the inscription "Remains found under the stake of Joan of Arc, virgin of Orleans." Carbon14 tests and various spectroscopic analyses were performed, and the results determined that the remains come from an Egyptian mummy from the 6th century BC.
0nRp TIL the Church of Scientology maintains a mansion in California in preparation for L. Ron Hubbard’s reincarnation, where identical sets of black thongs are ready for him, clothes laundered, and cars kept in the garage with keys in the ignition
R799w TIL that H1N1, the influenza strain that caused the 1918 flu pandemic, survived another 40+ years as a seasonal flu bug. It was finally “extinguished” by another flu virus, H2N2, in the 1957 flu pandemic. Even so, a “new” H1N1 emerged 50 years later to cause the 2009 “swine flu” pandemic.