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TIL that while dining out at Lord Harcourt's residence at Nuneham in 1848 William Buckland was shown a silver locket containing an object resembling pumice stone. He popped the object in his mouth, and swallowed it. It was in fact part of the mummified heart of Louis XIV of France.

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j6EVQ TIL that, in 1898, due to the closure of the Fleetwood Park Racetrack due to being sold to real estate developers, New York City officials considered building a new harness horse racetrack in Central Park. The city approved plans for a Central Park racetrack, but built it on unused land instead.
oRdDo TIL that medieval Christian monks had strange haircuts called tonsures, as a symbol of religious devotion and humility.
A4dw TIL that when the CIA opened a Twitter account, their first tweet was “We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet.”
Ypw47 TIL German-American Billionaire Entrepreneur & Venture Capitalist Peter Thiel wrote an article in April 2009 stating that "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible"
OREL TIL in 1985, a Colombian girl was trapped in a volcanic mudflow, and was trapped up to her waist. She was mostly alert and was interviewed. Knowing she would die, volunteers and rescuer did their best to comfort her. She died after 60 hours, and her photo became iconic.