› added 5 years ago

224

TIL scattered around Roopkund Lake in the Indian Himalaya are the bones of about 800 people who seemingly died in a single unkown event in 800 AD. Newer studies reveal that some of the bones belong to another group of people who also died in a single event. Except a thousand years after the others.

Read more nationalgeographic.com

via reddit.com

LkPBd TIL THE world's two largest standing Buddhas - one of them 165ft high - were blown up by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001. After failing to destroy the 1,700-year-old sandstone statues of Buddha with anti-aircraft and tank fire, the Taliban brought a Lorryload of dynamite from Kabul.
OGO9e TIL that during the American Revolutionary War,the Doan Outlaws, a gang of Quaker brothers from Pennsylvania,acted as British spies, stole over 200 horses to sell to the Redcoats, and in 1781 robbed the Bucks County treasury of £1,307, making it one of the largest public fund thefts in U.S. history.
wLYdo TIL Congress voted to pay George Washington $25,000 a year during his presidency. After initially declining the salary, he ultimately accepted it to avoid setting a precedent whereby the presidency would be seen as limited only to independently wealthy individuals who could serve without any salary.
D1wvg TIL that British politician John Stonehouse faked his death in November 1974, leaving a pile of clothes on a beach in Miami. It was presumed he had gone swimming and drowned. But Stonehouse was actually en route to Australia to set up a new life with his mistress and secretary, Sheila Buckley.
GANPN TIL about the Gävle goat, a Swedish Christmas display of a giant wooden goat which, despite this never being part of the tradition and being very illegal, has been burned down by arson almost every year since 1966