› added 7 months ago

51

TIL that before the invention of electric light, most Europeans had two phases of sleep, awakening late at night before sleeping again, called biphasic sleep

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epmDn TIL: Winston Churchill wrote an estimated eight to ten million words in more than forty books, thousands of newspaper and magazine articles, and at least two film scripts. In 1953, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
1aP7W TIL the definition of "treasure" according to the U.K. government is that it's at least 10% gold or silver and at least 300 years old. When treasure is found, the finder does not own it, and it is illegal to try to sell it.
71eX TIL that the justification for both times the United States invaded Iraq were based on testimony that was proven false.
1EAO TIL there is an unreleased experimental Russian film where nobody on set was allowed to admit they were part of a movie production. Everyone had to pretend they were living in the 50’s for three whole years. The entire set was even wired to reproduce the effect of living under the Soviet regime.
xVXwD TIL that the Hubble Telescope can read newspaper print from 1 mile away.