› added 11 years ago

598

TIL that Galileo was placed under house arrest by The Holy Office until his death in 1642 for defending his views about the Earth not being the center of the universe. The Vatican formally acknowledged they were wrong and Galileo was right in 1992.

Read more rferl.org

via reddit.com

Boky TIL in 2005, a guy named Doug Heckman read the EULA before he installed some PC software. The agreement included a clause offering ‘financial compensation’ to licensees who actually read the license agreement. He emailed the company, referred to the clause and the company sent him a check for $1,000
W7yAB TIL British comedian Freddie Starr was accused of eating a hamster by the tabloid newspaper The Sun. Although a complete fabrication, the rumour boosted Freddie's career and led to more tour dates. The rumour had been started by Freddie's manager as a practical joke.
gkM8 TIL Lord Timothy Dexter, late 1700s American businessman, faked his own death, but after attending his own funeral and not seeing his wife cry, revealed himself and caned her for not grieving hard enough
xx87 TIL that it is possible to drown hours after you are out of the water. Liquid that gets into the lungs can act as an irritant, and the resulting bodily reaction can cause a person to drown in their own bodily fluids.
ErBp TIL Beauty & the Beast may be based on a true story about a man (Petrus Gonsalvus) with an excessive hair disease called hypertrichosis and King Henry II of France had him educated then married off as an experiment