› added 8 months ago

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TIL that in December 1577 St. John of the Cross—A Catholic saint—was actually kidnapped by his fellow Carmelites, held in a tiny prison cell, beaten weekly and fed only bread and water for nine months before escaping.

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via reddit.com

GjQ TIL that when Robert Ballard announced he was mounting a mission to find the Titanic, it was actually a cover story for a classified mission to inspect lost nuclear submarines. They finished before they were due back, so the team spent the extra time at sea looking for the Titanic—and found it.
kO7G7 TIL that lobsters can live for a very, very long time given the right conditions and will continue to grow in size until their last molt.
J1rrv TIL Winnie-the-Pooh was originally named "Edward." They renamed the stuffed bear Winnie after meeting a black bear at the London Zoo with the same name. "Pooh" comes from a swan the creator AA Milne and his son encountered that they named Pooh.
wVDJ TIL that Cleveland has an entire abandoned subway system with four stations that has never, ever been used (see the end of this post)
6ElnY TIL that during the women’s gymnastics all-around final at the 2000 Olympics, the vaulting table was accidentally set 5 centimeters too low. Half of the gymnasts had vaulted before organizers fixed the error, and many of them had crashes.