› added 7 years ago

710

TIL that the tale of Hansel and Gretel might have originated during the Great Famine of 1315 - 17. Food was in such short supplies that people abandoned their kids (probably why Hansel and Gretel are lost in a forest) and that people even resorted to cannibalism (explains the cannibalistic witch)

Read more historic-uk.com

via reddit.com

neREB TIL colonies on Mars could use astronauts' blood and urine mixed with Martian dust to make concrete.
WEw4 TIL A 16-year-old Xhosa girl had a vision that to defeat the British soldiers the tribe should kill all the cattle and destroy the crops. Tens of thousands died in the resulting famine
4XVea TIL That the United States accidentally destroyed Britain's first satellite after detonating a nuclear bomb in orbit.
1l04 TIL Hitler requested the Shah of Iran to destroy roads and bridges so supplies wouldn’t be sent to Russia in the north, and that Hitler would rebuild these after the war once he won. The Shah refused.
QNkdd TIL René Auberjonois, who played Odo in Deep Space Nine, is the great-great-great-grand nephew of Napoleon