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236

TIL that the ancient Greeks had a form of "voting" called ostracism, where citizens could vote to banish a person from the city for ten years.

Read more education.nationalgeographic.org

via reddit.com

nNGo TIL that Leonardo DaVinci used to buy caged animals at the market just to set them free.
ZlbG TIL that prostitution was widely legal in the United States up until the early 1900’s, when the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union lobbied against it. This was the same union that was a driving force behind Prohibition in the 1920’s.
QXGL TIL Rob Ford, Mayor of Toronto, hosted a talk show on Canadian TV that was cancelled after one episode
Z8rwY TIL That the sign above the gates to Auschwitz-Birkenau, which reads 'Arbeit macht frei' (Work Sets You Free), was made by prisoners in the metalworking labor detail. The prisoners deliberately reversed the letter "B" as a camouflaged mark of disobedience.
lorxV TIL Pope John XII died on 14 May 964; one story relates that he died of a paralytic stroke suffered while having sex with a woman named Stefanetta. He may have died instead when the woman's husband defenestrated John or beat him to death with a hammer during the act.