› added 6 years ago

124

TIL The town of Salem, New Jersey once held a trial against tomatoes in 1820 because of the widespread belief they were poisonous. The case ended after Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson ate a basket of tomatoes without ill consequence.

Read more certell.org

via reddit.com

16Ao7 TIL that Babeuf, part of a failed coup attempt during the French Revolution, was guillotined while near death as he stabbed himself in the chest multiple times after hearing the verdict
nWLaB TIL - Venus is the only planet that doesn't spin counterclockwise
nWoMP TIL the difference between dinner and supper. Dinner was the largest meal of the day - historically, lunch was called dinner. However, dinner slowly migrated later in the day until it overlapped with supper.
xV7eg TIL Anne of Kiev became a Queen of France. By naming her first son and future King of France Philip, she is credited with introducing this Greek name (Philippos, from Philos and hippos, meaning "loves horses") to royal families of Western Europe
4XlyJ TIL that black essayist James Baldwin had an 1,884-page FBI file, one of the longest in Bureau history. Truman Capote, one of the most-suspected writers of the era, only had a 110-page file