› added 7 years ago

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TIL that one man fathered nearly 500 children as a result of many men being dead or left unable to reproduce after World War One in postwar Britain

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dDje9 TIL In the 16th century upper class women wore Visards when outside. The black, oval masks kept their faces from getting tanned, which was associated with the poor. Attached to it was a string with a glass bead a woman would hold in her mouth to keep the mask on.
XEjbj TIL that horses hide pain very well, almost too well, due to their nature as range prey that historically wouldn't show weakness to their predators
R7da9 TIL that during the cold war, the Soviets fired a machine gun in space. It was a defensive weapon on a secret space-spy-lab and was fired remotely after all personnel departed. The results have not been released.
7jpp TIL of Gregor MacGregor, a 19th century confidence trickster who fooled over 500 people over 5 years to buy land in a fictional Latin American country called Poyais he claimed had been made ruler of. About half of the people who bought land died. He made a fortune, and was later tried and aquitted.
jN8JR TIL that a catholic altar boy born in Boston dropped out of school, came to Jamaica and then join an Ethiopian Zion Church which he further transformed into an international drug network. The organization was later indicted in Florida for smuggling over 100 tons of marijuana.