› added 10 months ago

41

TIL that in 1567, surgeon Ambroise Pare decided to test whether bezoar stones, which were believed to cure poison, actually worked. He made a deal with a man condemned to death by poison: to give him a bezoar and let him go free if he lived. The man died in agony, proving that bezoars do not work.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

jJeX TIL Denmark & Norway were a single country between 1524 - 1814 and Sweden and Norway were a single country between 1814 - 1905
rNNgd TIL that a mathematical model can explain why we cannot find "aliens": it's likely we are one of the early species able to evolve to this point. If we survive to ourselves, chances are that we will become the "grabby aliens" that we cannot find.
dDvmQ TIL that in 1885 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used 300,000 pounds of explosives to annihilate Flood Rock island in New York City's East River as part of clearing Hell Gate for safer navigation. It's been described as "the largest planned explosion before testing began for the atomic bomb".
nWwRb TIL that before departing from his Crusade in the Levant, Edward, Duke of Gascony (the future Edward I) fought off and killed an assassin who was wielding a poisoned dagger.
y7oX TIL the Empire State Building’s spire was originally designed to be a mooring mast for Zeppelin airships